Day 341: I Love This Kitty So Much

When we brought our kitty home a little less than a year ago, we hoped she would develop some personality from the quiet, somewhat reserved, but very sweet kitty we picked out. But, of course, we had no guarantees that she would. She was and still is a very curious kitty and right from the beginning she tried to test our boundaries. Any time we reprimanded her for jumping onto the kitchen counter or drinking out of our water glasses she would creep underneath the red metal cabinet in our living room to lie down and pout. She would stay under there sometimes until we went to bed, which made me a bit sad. I would lie on the floor, with my head under the cabinet, trying to coax her out but unless I literally dragged her, she stayed put. I guess she was also establishing some rules of her own.

If you compared that shifty little kitty that came home with us to the one living with us today you'd see a very different gal. Nowadays she hops up into a vacant dining chair without hesitation to "visit" while we have dinner (or breakfast, or lunch or any food for that matter). She follows us from room to room playing with whatever she can get her paws or teeth into and she has a particular affinity for tissue paper and plastic bags. In those first months she would actually come sleep in the bedroom with us, but not on the bed. Now she sleeps with us, cozied up against our legs or in between us, and sometimes she even likes to cuddle up under the covers. This morning she was long kitty under the covers, stretched out from the foot of the bed all the way up to our waists.

In general, I guess you could say that she has developed quite the personality. We named her after a famous dance choreographer and she is certainly living up to her name, Pina. I love this kitty so much. She does such cute things. We try to capture them with photos but because she is so shiny and black it is difficult to really show her the way we see her. In the photo below, she had become intrigued with a piece of foil flapping inside the warm air oven as dinner was baking. She was merely trying to get a better look. Look at her holding on to the cabinet handle with her paws curled over it. Sometimes she is so cute it hurts.

A few days ago we decided to introduce her to the snow so we opened the balcony door to see what she would do. She crept up to the doorway and sniffed around but mostly hesitated, so we assumed she was uninterested. However, when I opened the door the next day she practically ran out. The photo at the bottom is of her sweet little paw prints out on the balcony shortly after my husband shoveled a couple of feet of snow off of it. Pretty darn cute, eh? She didn't even seem to mind the cold, with the exception of an occasional shake of the back feet as she slowly strolled around, sniffing everything as she went. Aw kitty, you are so sweet.

I... can... almost... reach....

It's a bear! It's a bobcat! No... it's just Pina.