I was a cat person from the moments I laid eyes on one.

I wrote in my previous blog that I became excited the first time I saw a cat. I badly wanted to pet it, and did so. It was a stray around our 15th Street neighborhood in Oklahoma City. Not long afterward, both I and our neighbors across the street were infected with ringworm from that cat. I don't remember that very well, except for crying and hearing the neighbor kids cry.

My mother wasn't really fond of cats but she came to understand over the next few years how much I longed for one. So I received a yellow tabby kitten for my 6th birthday. I named her "Pussy" because of a children's nursery rhyme that had a cat with that name. My mother gently guided me to change the name to "Kitty." It was many, many years later before I understood why.

Anyway, Kitty was my constant companion throughout my growing up years. The most exciting thing for me was when she had kittens. Once a year when she went into heat, my mother would allow me to let her outside to seek a mate. Then, by magic, about two months later, she would have kittens!

All in all, she had four or five litters. The vet gave her a shot in between times that kept her from going into heat for a whole year. I think it must have been something like Depo Prevera that is used as birth control for women. Later, the cat version was made unavailable for some legal reasons. I thought, and still think, that was a shame. It worked really well.

I'll write more about "cats and me" in another blog. This is a basic introduction. I'll try to explain to myself and anyone who reads this what the attraction is in my case, and also explore the history of interaction between cats and humans.