Milo is jealous

...of Sockington, the cat who has 1.5 million followers on his Twitter feed. Milo would like you to know that he's a lot more interesting than Sockington. Just this morning, in honor of the Winter Olympics, he had a particularly lengthy game of drop hockey. This is where he jumps into the bathtub right after someone has showered, sits near the tap, and catches the drops as they fall from the faucet every few seconds. He swipes at them sort of like you would hit a hockey puck, then licks his paw.

Did I ever tell you the story of how we picked him for adoption from the crowd of potential pets at the cat shelter? We looked at many cats in their cages and read their cards, immediately eliminating any that said the cat was not good with kids (at the time, Sarah and Becky were two and a half and 12 months old). I liked the look of this cat as soon as I saw him, with his tabby markings nicely interspersed with white. But we had to see how he would behave, so we took him for a test drive in this holding pen where you can play with the cat you're considering and see if you get along with each other. Bear in mind that the pen was in the center of the cat room lined with cages holding dozens of cats, presumably fearful and traumatized by their recent history and surroundings. So Ben carefully picked up Milo, and what did this huge cat do? Relaxed and fell asleep. That's when Ben looked at me and said, "We have to get this one, don't we?" And I replied, "Of course."

This initial encounter gave an accurate picture of Milo's personality. He is the most mellow cat I've ever met (hence his name). When someone picks him up, not only does he not struggle or scratch; he relaxes into a limp blob of fur and wears a profoundly bored expression. The only thing that gets him going is chasing the red dot -- and drop hockey.

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