Meet Callie
Bathroom Spa Enthusiast • Professional Drool Machine • Daddy’s Favorite and She Knows It
Callie came home during what should have been a completely normal family outing to a Tampa Bay Lightning game.
Unfortunately, we made one catastrophic mistake before hockey:
We went to the mall.
Now, generally speaking, I know myself well enough to avoid kitten adoption events entirely. But while wandering through the mall killing time before the game, we passed a rescue storefront with two tiny kittens.
And there, sitting in the window, was a calico kitten.
This was dangerous because my husband had spent years talking about the calico cat he adored as a child. Throughout all of our accidental cat acquisitions, we somehow had never come across another calico.
Until Callie.
Now, readers, by this point you may have noticed a recurring problem in this household:
I cannot separate kittens that seem attached to each other.
And unfortunately for our remaining sanity, the calico kitten shared her enclosure with a little gray tabby named Thunder.
So naturally, we adopted both of them.
Technically, we made this life-altering decision while actively on our way to a hockey game, which meant we could not actually take the kittens home that day because apparently hockey arenas have extremely unfair rules about bringing kittens inside.
So we arranged to pick them up the next morning.
Callie very quickly decided that my husband belonged exclusively to her.
To this day, she aggressively defends her position as his favorite cat. If another cat dares attempt to lay on his chest first, Callie will simply push them out of the way and claim the spot for herself with the confidence of someone enforcing assigned seating.
Physically, Callie is what can best be described as a butterball. She is medium-haired, which creates the illusion that some portion of her size might be fluff.
It is not.
Underneath that beautiful fur is an impressively solid cat.
Callie also has one of the strangest habits in the household:
She enjoys baths.
Not real baths, obviously. She would never participate in something so undignified.
Instead, Callie prefers standing on the bathroom counter screaming at my husband while he finishes showering so that the moment he steps out, he can wet his hands in the sink and smooth water over her fur while she admires herself in the mirror.
No one knows how this ritual began.
She will stare lovingly at her own reflection for several minutes while getting her “bath,” completely convinced this is normal behavior.
Callie also drools when she is happy.
And not just a tiny little bit.
At one point we took her to the vet because we were convinced something had to be medically wrong with this cat. After extensive testing, the vet informed us that Callie is perfectly healthy.
She is simply so relaxed and content that she occasionally forgets to swallow.
Which means she leaks.
Honestly, knowing your cat is actively drooling on you out of happiness is somehow more disturbing than hairballs.
And yet, despite the weird habits, dramatic possessiveness, and surprise moisture, Callie is an incredibly affectionate cat who absolutely adores her people.
Especially one specific person.
Adopted: December 2019
Special Skills:
- Forcing other cats off Dad’s lap
- Admiring herself in mirrors
- Drooling directly onto unsuspecting humans