I have always loved animals. Ever since I was a child, I always wanted new pets. So far, I've had three cats (two of which have died), three lizards, a frog, a toad, two newts, and an inordinate amount of fish. Recently, I have been acquiring new pets at an alarming rate. Recently, I learned that a friend of mine was giving away a 60 gallon fish tank for free. I claimed it, and it now contains many awesome fish and several Myst references. Then, I was assigned a project in my biology class that required me to obtain a pet lizard (a Cuban brown anole, to be specific) and observe its behavior for six weeks. After the six weeks ended, I bought two more lizards (a Carolina anole and a house gecko) to keep it company. The six weeks ended last tuesday, by the way.
Several months ago, an elderly woman named Patty learned that a good friend of hers was dying of cancer. Her friend owned a cat, which she loved dearly. This cat would need a good home once her owner died, so Patty decided to adopt the cat. Patty became very fond of the cat, and the cat became very fond of her. Last Friday, Patty was going to visit her friend, who was about to die. On her way there, she was in a terrible car accident. She died in the hospital later that weekend. Her friend died the following Sunday. Patty had been a volunteer in the Physical Therapy department at the local hospital. She had many friends in the PT department, all of whom were deeply saddened by her death. One of her other close friends began to care for the cat. She could not adopt the cat herself, as it was very skittish and she owned a dog. All of her coworkers also owned dogs, so none of them could adopt the cat either. Her boss, on the other hand, did not own any dogs. Her boss told her that she would take the cat this Wednesday if no one else would. The woman's boss just happens to be my mother, and no one else has offered to adopt the cat yet.
My friends all say the cat is a death omen. They have even suggested some amusing names for the cat, such as "Grim", "Reaper", "Death", "The Death Cat", "II", and "Lilith". My favorites are "II" and "Lilith"; "II" indicating the number of the cats previous owners that died, and "Lilith" being the name of both a succubus and a character from a certain graphic novel who has the ability to drain life-force.
