We have a few cats in our house!  The one I'm going to speak about is Kirby, who is my 16-1/2 year old daughter, Caitlin's cat.

We were living in Saint Joseph, Michigan, 9 years ago, when Caitlin was in 3rd grade and she was 7-1/2 years old.  My spouse and I were looking on the web and educating ourselves on all of the pedigree cats available.  The 3 cats that we found intriguing was; an Egyptian Mau, Abyssians and Ocicats.   We were looking & reading up on all of cat's  temperaments and we found that Ocicats were smart and could learn to "fetch" like dogs. Also, they were created from a combination of Abyssians, Siamese and American Short-Hairs cats.  They had the smarts of Abyssians & Siamese and the domestication of American Short Hairs.   So we narrowed it down to obtaining an Ocicat!  We looked online for all the breeders of Ocicats and found one outside of Detroit, Michigan who bred Ocicats.  This breeder no longer is breeding, but he was AWESOME!!!!  When we took the 4 hour drive from Saint Joseph, Michigan (southwestern Michigan) to Detroit, Michigan (northeastern Michigan) we were amazed on how this breeder played with all of the kittens and adults cats, which made all of them playful.  I believe he got "emotionally" attached to all of his cats and kittens.

We let our 7-1/2 year old daughter loose to locate the kitten that she found loveable.  My daughter aimed for the only kitten with the "stuffed nose", who looked like he had "allergies".  He was a larger male kitten, that was called a "dark chocolate spotted Ocicat", who was very playful, considering he had a fully stuffed nose.  We tried to persuade our daughter to look at another cat, but she was fully engulfed with this cat.  We stayed there for two hours and watched her interact with the kitten and kitten with her.

After the two hours, my spouse and I discussed the options and decided to let the kitten come home with Caitlin.  As we were going back to Saint Joseph, Michigan, we asked our daughter, who then was playing her GameBoy in the car (if not 24/7) to think of a name for her new kitten.  She looked at the cat and said I think I'll call him "Kirby".  We asked her "Why?"  and she said it reminded her of the "fat pink Nintendo character Kirby who emplodded" in the game.

Both my spouse and I looked at each other and laughed.  We tried to talk her out of the name, but it started to stick, because of his "attitude".   Initially, we put the kitten in with our daughter in her bedroom for a week, to bond to Caitlin.  The food, cat litter and water were all in the room and Caitlin stayed in there and played with the kitten most of the day.  Our daughter took total responsibility of the kitten.  My spouse and I both tried to stay away, since we wanted the kitten to bond to Caitlin, and not us. 

After a week, Kirby came out to the rest of the house, and we found his "wild side".  He would go into "Turbo Mode" at random, probably from his ancestery; Abyssian and Siamese background.  We also thought, maybe Caitlin "overstimulated" the cat.  LOL. You know, when most people are getting their homes "child proof", we had to get our home "cat proof".  This meant getting all of the fine china, glassware, anything "breakable" out of the way of the "Wild Thing".  We also invested in a "water bottle" to deactivate the kitten from his "wild side".

Of all of our cats, this cat hugs people when he's picked up, especially when he's cold, since he is a short-haired cat.  He  "fetches" toys, balls, anything fuzzy" and brings it back to the person who threw it and sits in a way ready to bounce on the item thrown again.   He's the BEST CAT we have and is the LEADER of the pack. He tends to keep the other cats in line. 

To get you ready for the Christmas holidays, here's a picture of our Kirby in the Christmas tree.  Yes, he does this every year!  ENJOY!!!

Do you have any "crazy wild" cats running around your home?  Tell me about your cat or cats....   ;>)