Home is where my Lucy is!

Lucy came into my life almost 12 years ago, in May. My boyfriend and I had just moved into our first apartment together, and decided we needed a “little one” to make it feel more like a home. I had found an ad boasting kittens that were free to a good home – surely we’d be a good home! We worked together at the time, and our boss was gracious enough to let us leave early together that day, and speed through rush hour traffic. We had found out when we called about this little kitty that she was the last one left from the litter, and that three other couples had planned to come and pick her up.
I ran up to the front door and pushed the doorbell. The man who answered the door said that we’d got there first, and he went to go get the kitten. When he returned to the door, my eyes locked gaze with the brilliant yellow eyes of the kitten in his grasp. I was smitten at first sight! He passed her to me, and the next thing I remember I was sitting in the passenger side of the car introducing her to Don.
The man came out to the car and mentioned that she was litter trained, and bade her farewell. I must have been grinning like a fiend. I wonder if he doubted our abilities as “cat people?”
We brought our feisty little bundle home, and she promptly dove under the futon. It was a very obvious choice of cover, since it was the only piece of furniture we had been able to afford at that point. Because I had the next two days off, I was able to spend quite a lot of time lying on the carpet with my head sideways, talking to this stunning little nymph who absolutely refused to leave her hideout. Eventually we struck a bargain, and she started walking around the place like she owned it – I’ve been happy since to claim that any house of mine is owned by my Lucy first!
Lucy and I bonded very closely, and from her very early days, she would sleep nestled in my hair, kneading the back of my neck with her paws (and yes, sometimes claws!) You’d never see me happier than when I was lying in bed with my kitten scratching the back of my neck.
As a kitten, she was a wild thing, who routinely leapt through the apartment at a height of about 4 feet off the ground. She obsessed about nailholes in the walls – and used to jump at them for hours. She also used to call spiders down - - well, she’d call to them, and I’d have to thwack them down for her to play with – come to think of it, she was really calling me.
She has a different meow for different occasions – a very distinct “TUNA NOW” meow, a special meow to call Ed (our other cat), a lonely, “where are you??” meow, and a very distinct “come find me” meow, among others. She also has a fabulous purr- like a finely tuned Japanese sportscar, it’s tight and buzzy.
Even now, after the addition of another cat and a dog to our little family – I’ve not had such a bond with another animal before.