Three Cheers for 'Ole Mitch

This is my boss, Mitchell. I am employed, for no wages, as his doorwoman.

Last month I wrote about the world's most wondrous whippet on her birthday. Since I don't know when my dear kitty friend, Mitchell, was born I have chosen to write about him today, beginning with how we met.

Back in the late 1990's I really, really wanted a romantic relationship in my life. All the people who were close to me knew about this because I whined about it a lot. My hilarious friend, Gaylor, decided to create a fictitious boyfriend for me. His name was Mitchell Singletary and he was perfect. I'd come back to my desk after lunch and there'd be one of those pink while-you-were-out sheets in my chair. It would say things like Mitchell called and he misses you or Mitchell came by to whisk you away to Paris for a romantic weekend, too bad you went home to eat vegetarian chili. It was funny stuff. I really enjoyed my messages from "Mitchell."

Sometime during all this silliness I started finding this beautiful grey cat waiting for me every day when I got home from the library. He'd be sitting at the bottom of the steps that led up to my apartment. I'd talk to him, pet him, call him Pretty Grey Man, tell him that I couldn't afford to take care of him, feel sad about that, and go into my apartment. This continued every day for three months.Then on December 23, 1998 my grandfather died. It was icy and cold during that Christmas vacation and I was mourning. On New Years Eve Mr. Grey Man showed up at my apartment again. It was really cold and I was worried about him staying outside that night. I called my landlady who lived downstairs and asked if she'd seen this kitty and if I could keep him in my part of the house overnight (I had a no pets lease). She said sure and he's been with me ever since.

I decided that Pretty Gray Man was a really stupid name, so I started thinking about what to call my new roommate. I wanted to name him after my Papa who I'd just lost, but I thought my family would think I was nuts if I started calling the cat Lindy. I decided that secretly naming him after my grandfather would be a really good idea. So Lindberg would be his middle name, that much I knew.

Now the wanting a romantic relationship thing was still an issue and the Mitchell Singletary game, though fun, was sort of dying out at work. This sounds silly but I decided that if I would let go of Mitchell Singletary - because he was perfect and no real guy would ever live up to that - then maybe an actual guy would turn up. As you may have guessed, Pretty Gray Man became Mitchell Lindberg. And I guess it worked because the next fall I started dating a guy that I was with for the next three and a half years, even though Mitchell really, really, really didn't like him, but that's another story...

Mitchell has his playful moments, his sweet moments, his cranky moments and a lot of feed-me-right-now-damn-it and please, please, please let me go outside moments. I love him dearly and most of the time I think that he likes me okay. Then he'll do something like sleep on me while I am reading and my heart just melts.

Three cheers for 'Ole Mitch who adopted me coming up on 8 years ago. It must be true love.

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