Sofia

We thought it was about time you met our 9 or 10ish year old cat Sofia. We picked her up on a whim one day, about 7 years ago, from a local Seattle animal shelter. She came with the name Dixie, but that was changed quickly. We think she likes the name we choose for her better than what they choose.

Like many animals they all have there particular quirks and Sofia is not short of her own. Here are a few in no particular order:

1. She really enjoys starring at the wall. Like, intently. There's nothing there, but she really finds comfort in this activity.
2. She does not like to cuddle and especially does not like being picked up (which explains these slightly awkward photos). However, she always wants us to know she is there. This is shown either by running right in front of us, almost causing us to trip as we avoid her, and lots of meowing.
3. Her food bowl is kept in the kitchen and she insists on eating every time we walk in that general direction. Sometimes she will just sit and stare at her food before eating, even though we think she knows she's not hungry. We think we know what caused this problem, but we'll let her deal with it in her own way.
4. She's not a very big cat, but watch out when she flops over to the side, she really lets it all hang out. But she's not ashamed and we admire that about her.
5. She snores. Loudly. She snores even when she's not sleeping. Sometimes she'll be starring at the wall (see #1) while snoring, so we'll give her a gentle nudge and she'll stop briefly. Only to return to snoring.
6. Unlike many cats we've had in the past growing up, she rarely cleans herself. We see this as an advantage to having to pick up hairballs.
7. She's an indoor cat, but once in awhile she'll manage to sneak out the front door, chew on a few blades of grass, only to cowardly run back inside when a car, person, bird, bug, or dandelion seed goes by.
8. She has never scratch us or another person. She keeps her claws to herself and the cardboard scratch pads we make for her.
9. She can do this thing with her eye where one stays shut for a really long time. So it's like a really long wink she's giving you.

All in all, she's a great cat. We really want to have a dog some day that we can take to the beach and for walks, but we don't tell Sofia this. We think she likes having us all to herself. But we'll see.

p.s. all photos taken by Sara Montour