I. LOVE. This. Cat!!

This is my beautiful Callie. AKA Callie-bug, Callie-girl, Callie-cat, Callie-poo, Sweetie-girl, Miss Beautiful, and a host of other names. Callie and I lived together for about 2 years before I got married, so we had lots of time to bond. She's such a love! She would follow me around, come visit me while I was in the kitchen, and lay on the bathroom rug while I was in the bathroom. She'd hop up on the bathroom counter, drink out of my glass (she soon had her own glass), and then come give me a head butt for treating her like the little princess she is. She would sleep at the foot of the bed or up by my pillow every night. I'd go to sleep to her purr.

Callie thrives on routine and a calm environment. She would never make it in a rowdy house with kids! Slight changes in routine or even raised voices stresses her out to the max. When we moved to a house from our very small apartment, I thought she'd enjoy having more room to roam and explore. She didn't. She stressed out. With time, though, she settled in and thrived in her new surroundings.

Then, because Callie was getting a bit on the plump side, we adopted a second cat thinking that a playmate would provide her some much needed exercise. Wrong! It brought on stress and a host of stress-induced illnesses. Callie would hide, wouldn't come to bed with me, would avoid the bathroom, she wouldn't follow me around, she would hang out by herself in the living room and avoid the family, and she would cringe everytime Hannah came near her. Eventually, Callie settled back down and life calmed down for her, but she still wasn't that precious little girl who stole my heart. Oh, she still would purr for me, let me brush her (her favorite thing), and pet her, and came to me for food, but we didn't have that tight connection we once shared.

Within the past month, though, things have changed!! Callie's been following me around. She's been giving me oodles of head butts and licks on my hand. She's coming into the bathroom like she owns the place and even jumping up on the counter to drink from my glass!! She lays on the floor by my computer chair and looks absolutely pathetic, begging for my chair. She jumps up on the bed and lays by my pillow. In short, she's learned to trust me (again) and she's claimed me for her own. I'm so proud of her!!