Everyone, this is Katie. In theory, she is a cat. I can't make any guarantees because her existance is the result of witchcraft. Its true. I cast a spell to create a black or grey cat named Hecate. I had to ask Bast for her form and Hecate for her name, but they happily consented and in short order, my priestess presented me with a kitten. It was a feral little beast with wild puffy fur and the cutest little hiss. As expected, she made an excellent companion for my familiar, Hex, a thirty-five pound black monster cat that scared away the cleaning lady and kept the dogs away from the waterdish through shear intimidation. As a matter of fact, I always introduced them as Hex and his cat, Katie. Yes, my cat had his own pet cat. I created her to be his companion. I figured who better to take care of a cat than another cat. He was good at it too. At first Hecate was completely terrified of Hex, but one day, when she dared walk right in front of him, he reached out with one paw and pinned her to the floor. Then he cleaned her for the first time, with gigantic swipes of the tongue that went from head to tail, and the puff ball became the sleek creature you see in the picture. For years she looked like some kind of strange martian cat with eyes too big for her head. It wasn't until after she was fixed that she really blossomed into the beauty she is now. But it makes sense in hindsight, Hecate being a crone goddess and all. Well, for a while I was worried about my craftsmanship. Okay, I thought, I created a really weird-looking cat. Is that what I look like as a cat? And she's prissy. Given a choice between the entire planet and her cat box, she will insist on using the box. We lost her in Las Vegas once, miles of sand in all directions, but she had to come back to her box to pee. Well anyway, I've cast hundreds of spells since the one that created Katie, but she remains my favorite by a long shot. I learned a powerful lesson from her creation. With the right motivation I could do anything. She had come into being not because I wanted to demonstrate my powers or because I wanted another cat. I created her because I was working long hours, had a busy social life, and Hex just wasn't getting enough attention. I still look at her and feel the deepest sense of awe and mystery. She has always been more than I expected. For example, she's a tabbie, a black tabbie with blacker stripes. I didn't ask for a tabbie, but they are my favorite kind of cat. I did however specify that she be black. The tabbie stripes are just one of the many details I didn't specify but were a delightful surprise. In fact there is so much to her that is beyond my comprehension, I wonder how I created her at all. But I did. I can't deny what I did any more than I can deny that she exists. The fact that she seems miraculous even to me has, in a way, become old news. The new news is that my husband Rob really wants a puppy. hehehe. How to make a puppy . . .