Some of you may recall that a little over a year ago I lost my beloved cat, Abbey, when she died at the ripe old age of 17. I was in Israel at the time and was devastated that she died while I was gone, though I had a feeling she would. My mom took the loss quite hard as well, as she too was out of town and travelling to France. We had a great life with Abbey and she brought an enormous amount of love and joy into our home. That left us with one cat, a bad-ass boy named Isaac (I brought him home from the pet store I was working at 10 years ago). Isaac was lonely but eventually adapted to being the only cat in the household. Both cats lived with my parents and my mom wasn't sure if she'd ever be ready to bring another cat into the home again (don't we all say that after a heart breaking loss of a pet?). In recent months however, my mom had begun suggesting that she might be ready to welcome a new kitty into the house.... if she were to find the right one. She pointed to an old painting on the wall my grandmother had done *years* ago and said that she wanted THAT cat. A beautiful, regal, long-haired orange tabby.

Earlier this week I stopped into a PetSmart in my area to pick up cat food for Isaac. I started to head over to the adoption area to see the cats they had but then decided it was too heart breaking to see them in cages, so I turned away. Two seconds later I was turning around and walking towards the glass room. And what did I see on the other side of the glass? A half grown kitty with long orange fur. "Uh-Oh" said I, as I saw the kitty of my mom's dreams. I squinted to try and read the info on him attached to the cage.. how old was he? was he adopted yet? I decided to give up, and that my mom would never take a cat right now. She was almost ready, but not quite. I turned and walked to the other side of the store to buy cat food.

As I made my way back to the front of the store to buy the 4 cases of canned food I had in hand I found myself veering again towards the adoption kennels. I saw that the 2 staff that had been lingering around before had left so I set the food down on a table and let myself into the room. I was greeted casually but happily by Quincy, the 'cat in the painting'. He tried to charm me but wasn't going to beg for me to take him home. He more or less just suggested it might be nice. I fell in love with him and immediately took my cell phone out and called my mom. I told her: "I found your cat".

That night I went with my mom back to the store and met with the woman from the adoption group. She took Quincy out and put him in my mom's arms where he immediately melted comfortably into her fold and began purring. My mom cried. "This is my cat" she said. And so it was; we filled out the adoption forms that night and after a few reference calls (oh yes!) the next day, we were approved. 7 month old Quincy is set to come home and meet his new brother (*gulp!*) Isaac on Friday night. Two orange cats in one home can only mean trouble.... :-) I think Abbey would approve of Quincy... he drools when he purrs, just like she did! (a charming feature in a cat, really)

There is just one problem..... the family can't agree on the name! My mother and I both thought Quincy was a great name but the men in the family hate it. We have been tossing suggestions back and forth with no agreement yet. I shall now field some of the suggested names for your feedback/approval..... and if you have a name to add to the list, speak up!

Atticus Apollo Ari Bonzai Boomer Bosco Boris Brutus Caesar Cedric Chance Cisco Clyde (or Clive!) Cosmo Damian (he IS orange afterall!) Dash Dexter Didget Diesel Digby Dooley Duey Duncan Edgar Egon Elijah Elwood Enzo Errol Finn(igan) Fitz Flash Galahad Gavin Gromit Gus Huck Icarus Jaffa Jonah Kilian Lewis Liam Marik (Mare-ick) Maxwell Micah (My-cah) Miles Moby Oliver Orson Oscar Otis Paco Palooka Phoenix Poe Raoul Rio Rowan Rudy Rupert Russell Samson Sassafras Strauss Tang(o)

updated suggestions:
Marley. Merlin. Milo. NOT Piper.