Even though my mother is a purebred Abysinnian, I'm 
bittersweet-chocolate black and have long fur.  Must have 
been my papa who caused that.  I have a small cameo of 
white on my chest, another pale tuft beneath my left leg, 
and a little white bikini bottom between my back legs.  
Those back legs are sort of funny-looking:  the knees are 
knocked in, and my paws turn out like a dancer's feet.  
They make me look like a bunny when I run.  My ears are 
long, pointy, and slightly tufted.  My nose is long and 
Romanesque, bordered on both sides by long black whiskers.  
I have extended eyebrows, which often appear in a lyre 
shape way above my head.  And my eyes are beautiful medium 
amber with shades of red amber and green mottled 
throughout.  When I'm amazed or frightened, they appear to 
take over my whole face.  My tail is very long and I can 
"talk" with it, which is an Abysinnian trait.  So 
I don't always vocalize when I want to say something:  
sometimes I just vibrate my tail.
	My mom came to her foster family pregnant with me and 
several other kittens.  The family fostered cats for Happy 
Endings, a no-kill animal shelter in Milwaukee, WI.  I had 
a good time growing up there playing with my siblings.  Very 
early in my life, my foster family took me to a pet shop 
and someone took a look at me.  He told them I was a boy, 
so they called me Sylvester after the cartoon cat.  I was 
never comfortable with that name, for good reason.  Maybe 
that's why I'm so shy.
	One day when I was 8 months old, a Happy Endings 
volunteer took me to a pet store in Greenfield, WI.  It 
scared me.  I had to sit in a cat carrier and have people 
look in at me the whole day.  Kids stuck their fingers 
through the door.  I didn't like it.
	But there was one person who talked quietly to me.  
She said I was pretty, and asked the volunteer to take me 
out of the carrier.  She held me.  I trembled, I was so 
frightened.  She petted and soothed me.  Her words felt 
good in my ears, and I started to relax.  Then she handed 
me back to the volunteer, and left.  My panic returned.  
Would I never get out of this terrible place?
	You know what?  She came back the same afternoon, and 
asked to hold me again!  She talked to me a lot more before 
she signed the adoption papers.  Said she'd been thinking 
of names for me, and after that she just had to come back!  
My new name was Cyrenor D'Argentis.  She said she named me 
after a French swordsman she'd been in love with for a long 
time, but it was still a male name.  I was so excited, 
though, I didn't correct her.
	Two weeks later, my foster family put me in a carrier 
in their car, and drove what seemed like forever.  I cried 
all the way.  They brought me into Janet's house, opened 
the door, and let me meet Canth Starshadow, a very old 
black cat, and Tabirika Onyx, a young longhair.  I snooped 
around, and decided I liked the place.  Canth seemed 
friendly.  He was really too old to do much.  Brika and I 
reached an arrangement soon after I got there:  she's 
definitely the head of the cat hierarchy, after the lady 
who adopted us.  My foster family approved, and returned to 
Milwaukee without me.  I had a home!
	That's when things got interesting.  Janet, my new 
friend, took me to the vet because my mouth smelled so bad.  
There was something wrong.  I didn't like the vet, but I 
let him look in my mouth anyway.  He said I might have 
something called feline leukemia, which is a terrible 
disease.  He took a blood sample, gave Janet some medicine 
for me, and told her to separate me from Canth and Brika.  
So when we got home, she put me in the bathroom.  
	I was desolate.  There I was in a strange place, all 
by myself.  No one got any sleep that night because I 
howled and banged on the door.  The next day Janet took me 
to ANOTHER vet to get a second opinion.  This vet was a 
woman.  When she talked to Janet about me, this vet always 
said "she".  Janet said, "Wait a minute.  We 
have a difference of semantics here."  The vet 
replied, "Well, yes.  Didn't you know you have a 
female cat?"
	So in the 15 minutes it took to get results on my 
second feline leukemia test in three days, I got another 
name:  Syrannis Moonstone, Syri for short.  I like this 
one!  Janet called the person in charge of  Happy Endings 
to tell her about my mistaken sex.  That person was all 
worried that my new friends wouldn't like me any more 
because I was female.  Janet reassured her that my sex 
didn't make any difference--it was the cat she was 
interested in.  You can imagine how good I felt when I 
heard that!  Janet already loved me, and wouldn't give me 
up.
	I didn't enjoy taking the pills, but my mouth problem 
cleared up.  I started playing with Brika, and lending my 
support whenever I could to Janet's writing projects.  
Canth died a couple of months after my adoption:  things 
were kinda quiet until that big cat Shannivere came to live 
with us.  He keeps things stirred up.
	Now there are two blacks and a blue here, and we play 
lots.  Shannivere and I chase full-speed through the cat 
tunnel on the living room floor to capture strings at the 
far end.  It gets complicated when we goof and start at 
opposite ends at the same time--since he's 16 pounds, and 
I'm now 10 pounds, there's barely room for the two of us to 
pass.  Sometimes I have to wait for Brika and Shannivere to 
have their turns on Janet's lap before I can have mine.  
I'm compensating for that by jumping to the back of her 
chair, standing on her shoulder, and rubbing my face 
against hers whenever I can.  I also bring her my toys to 
throw:  I fetch sometimes, but only when I'm in a silly 
mood.
	I'm also Janet's "alarm clock".  I get up at 
dawn, especially during the summer.  Then I spring onto her 
stomach, yowl in a certain way, and rub her nose with mine.  
She knows that means "Hey!  Time for breakfast!"  
Usually she tries to ignore me and stays in bed until 6.  
Then she scratches my chin and my back, and everyone gets 
up.
	Janet calls me her "moon-eyed little girl".  
When she gets home from working at the pottery at night, 
I'm always standing by the door waiting for her to bend 
down and touch noses.  One of my favorite places is on top 
of the refrigerator in the kitchen.  I can keep watch on 
the deer who sometimes peer in the windows from there.  We 
warn away the raccoons who live in the trees surrounding 
the house and use the yard as a highway on summer nights, 
too.  And sometimes real mice sneak in!  I've been put on 
Mouse Detail because I'm the one who tracks them down, 
moving everything in the room with unswerving concentration 
until I corner one.  Then Brika helps run them down.  When 
we subdue them, she takes over and gives the bite.  I'm 
learning how to do that.  Brika can be a little testy 
sometimes because she thinks she's a princess, but she's a 
good teacher.  And I taught Shannivere to tail-talk.  He's 
getting pretty good at it.
	You know, after thinking about all the stuff I had to 
go through to get the right home, I don't regret it.  I was 
in the right place at the right time.  That's so very 
important.  I have great friends now, plenty of good food, 
and a warm place to live.  But the best thing of all is the 
love Janet gives me.  And, of course, I give it right back!  
I just can't imagine living anywhere else.