How Jack Came To Our House

This is Jack. He's almost 2 years old, but you'd think he was a kitten. He's very cute, pretty small (especially compared to the Kitten Hopper, who weighs in around 22 lbs.), and this is where he likes to sleep -- next to one of the heat registers in the house. All my pets picked us before we picked them. Jack, for example, is a talker, and he talked me right into taking him home.

I went to the shelter and was looking for a girl kitty to be friends for The Kitten Hopper, and picked up a beautiful brown tiger striped kitty who was so cute, petite and quiet, I thought she was almost too quiet.

Well, Jack walked up to me in the visiting area, and talked his head off. "Meow, meow, meeeee ow!" He said. I said "What, you want me to put her down and pick you up?" And he said "Meow."

I put down cute girl kitty and picked up Jack, and he quit talking and started purring his little heart out. Loudly.

"All right, buddy, you win. I'll take you."

Then he did what all my other pets have done when I've said that. He reached up with a paw and touched my face. That sealed the deal

Well, I didn't know that Jack's talking wasn't just a desperation thing. It's part of his personality. When he isn't sleeping, eating, or doing his business in the cat box, he follows me around, talking.

I often talk back and his tone changes. "Is that right Jack?" MEOW, he says. "Well, I'm here to tell you what you heard is true."

He just talks right back, like we're having a whole conversation and I can understand him and he can understand me.

He is a smart kitty. He has figured out that doors are opened by doorknobs, and he stretches long and tall and tries to reach the knobs, then gets his paws around them and tries to open them. Especially if you're sleeping and he wants to be with you.

He likes watching TV and the fish tank, and he loves his warm spot in the house.

I think the neatest thing was the story about how he was returned to the shelter by a husband whose wife didn't ask if she could bring a kitten home. The man brought Jack back holding him "like he was a turd" the shelter lady said. After another week in the shelter, I said I'd be taking him home, and she was thrilled that he finally had a forever home.

It's taken Jack a while to be friends with Brian, I think maybe because his previous Man Of The House didn't like him. But now they're buddies, and Jack goes to Brian as often as he does me.

Brian said "You pick good ones," when I made some wisecrack about our pets being so funny and strange in their own way.

But really, they chose us.