Hans

I have a little cat named Hans. He's grey and fuzzy and possibly the cutest cat anyone could imagine (I may be a bias mother, but it’s still true.) Even people who aren’t “cat people” love this cat. Every day, while I’m at work or school he sleeps out on the porch in a folding chair (He tends to do this on warm nights as well.) While I do my homework, it’s “Meow, mommy cuddle me, meow!” My little Hans likes to be held like an infant, with his belly up. Typically, he is found curled next to my face in the mornings, a habit he’s had since he was a tiny kitten. (Curl up on mommy’s face because we know she has allergies.)
I came by Hans in a rather obscure fashion. I have always loved cats, but I did not want one while I was in school, I thought it was unfair to spilt my busy schedule between work, school and an animal. However, last year, while living in the dorms, my roommate brought home the little ball of fuzz which she had named Toby. “Isn’t he cute!?” she said, while I worried about getting caught by the RAs. He just sat in the palm of your hand, and yes… he was pretty cute. But he wasn’t my responsibility; I didn’t want him. He woke me up at night in our dorm room, once again, by trying to seep on my face.
After about a month of the little cat my roommate was sick of him. And I mean, completely ignored the little kitten, which could now sit in two hands instead of one. So, she decided one day, to give him to the SPCA. But, my boyfriend had fallen in love with the cat. He talked about getting one of his own but kept saying, “I only want that one!” So, he and I took a trip to the SPCA where he adopted little Toby and renamed him Hans. (He’d never answered to Toby anyway.) Hans loved the boy’s house. It was much bigger than a little dorm room and there was almost always someone around to play with him. Hans grew to be a big cat over the winter (which is good since he had such a big name to grow into.)
Unfortunately, when the boy friend’s crazy mother (also the landlady) saw the cat, at first she liked him, them a few weeks later she just picked him up and said, “Say good bye to Hans!” and literally ran to the door to return him to the SPCA. Everyone was upset. Hans had brought us all closer together; he was not just Howard’s cat, but everyone’s. However, we had nowhere to keep him. At the time, Suzanne and I had been waiting for an apartment for almost a month and weren’t expecting one to open any time soon.
But I still rescued Hans from the SPCA, making him officially my cat. By this time, I’d fallen in love with him too. Nothing was going to separate Hans and me. None of us could stand him being lost to us forever. He lived with Suzanne for a time and the boys when the crazy mother wasn’t around. He even stayed with a few other friends for a week while Suzanne and I waited for our apartment. And finally our move in day happened. My little Hans had a home!
Hans is about the happiest, curious, most loveable, un-cat-like cat there is. He snuggles and hardly ever leaves my side, following like a dog. Where I go, he goes. I wouldn’t give up my little Hans for the world.