This is such a lovely post - thank you for sharing it with us, @galenkp.

Ben and I have a furry best friend - well, we've had more than one over the years - and they are central to our lives in the same way Merlin and Cleo have been for you.

Let me introduce you to this little cutie:

This cat had many names - Jess to start with, as we thought he was a girl kitty, and then found out he was a boy, so he got called Jimmy.

I was at a house party in mid September 1998 - it was a colleague from work that I didn't know too well, so I hoped the party might change that. My friend and I got there early, and the party wasn't even really going at that point, especially as her toddler was still up. He was playing when I first saw him, throwing a ball against a wall, over and over. At least, we thought it was a ball. It was only when the ball chirped, unfolded itself and tried to get away that we realised it was a kitten. This Kitten. To our utter horror, our colleague knew full well what her son had been doing, and hadn't been bothered in the slightest.

Long story short, my friend and I cat-napped the kitten, and left the party later, with kitty in pocket. Originally, my pal was going to look after him, but as he already had a fully grown, unneutered male cat at home, I became his human less than 10 days later. He was taken to the vets with 12 hours of becoming mine, and it's a good thing I did so, as he was extremely poorly, and wouldn't have lasted the weekend without treatment.

The rest, as they say, is history. This little buddy became my everything.

(My reading buddy)
Mind you, in 2006 he met Ben, and they became best friends too. Overnight, all my training went out the window, and they were dirty rotten scoundrels together (Ben taught him to nick my bacon off my plate!)

He was with us until Feb 2018, and passed away at 19 and a half years of age...

This has brought up so many good memories of him that I will pop an extended post about all things JimmyGinger and share it in #HiveCats.

Thanks again!

Annabelle :)