Many of you know that even though I’m a children’s photographer, I’m not a mother myself. A mother to a human baby, at least. I thought I’d introduce everyone to my baby. She’s a toddler in a fur suit, and I just love her to pieces.
This is Stumpy. We call her Stumpy, The Stump, or Little Mess. She adopted us one cold day about two years ago and just hasn’t left since. She’d been coming around my apartment for a while, but it was due to ice storm, so I’d begun leaving some food out. She’d carefully eat it and watch me through the glass, running away if I moved at all. John and I would refer to her as “The cat with the stumpy tail.” One night, I stood up slowly and went out, whereupon she attached herself to my lap and refused to be budged for 45 minutes.
I begged John to let her into the house and he finally agreed (he’s a dog person). She had a bad habit of talking loudly to herself late at night for a while, so we would put her out at night, but gradually she stopped and began hiding under things when it came time to put her out. Gradually she began staying in at night and that was that. We debated giving her a real name, but we’d been calling her ‘Stumpy Cat’ for so long that we couldn’t think of anything better.
She talks, she drools, she sleeps in the bed with us. She ‘rescues’ us from the shower and eats anything that gets into the house. My baby doesn’t know she’s a cat. Either that, or she doesn’t know we’re not cats.
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