Celebrate National Cat Day with Sev!

Happy National Cat day to you and all your furry friends!

To be honest with you, I didn’t even know that it was National Cat Day up until a few months ago. But once I realized, I thought that it was the puuurfect opportunity to share with you an obnoxious amount of photos of my cat, Severus, who I mainly call Sev.

Sev is the first pet that I’ve owned by myself, but I come from a family of cat people, so I felt like it was normal for me to want one of my own. After our family cat and dog passed, and I had been on my own for about 2 years, and I found myself thinking more and more about getting a cat. Once I realized that I had a name for my future cat, it became more of a reality.I think a small part of me didn’t want to be the stereotypical cat lady who lives alone, but eventually, I just said fuck it, I want one, and I’m damn well going to get one.

I looked at a lot of adoption centres and kijiji ads. However, being my picky self, I had a few criteria:

1. I wanted a male cat. Our cat growing up was male and I had heard that male cats are nicer. I had also decided on the name Severus (yes, I’m a Harry Potter fan) so a male cat was essential.
2. I wanted a kitten. Duh, so cute.
3. I didn’t want to pay an absurd amount of money for the cat.
4. I wanted a grey cat. Turns out, grey cats are mostly just expensive Russian Blue’s or British Shorthairs or Scottish Folds… There was no way I was paying the equivalent of a months rent on a cat.
5. I had to be able to get to the cat via subway/bus.

SO, with all that in mind I began my search and actually found a lady selling male grey kittens in Etobicoke for $60! It sounded like my ideal situation, so I went to go meet the kittens, and picked out my future little Sev. These cats were half Himalayan, and I’m guessing half domestic short hair. SO FLUFFY!

The kitten wasn’t old enough to be brought home yet, and I was going to be away for the weekend, so I told the lady that I would come back for her the following week. That weekend was my birthday, (Yes, I essentially bought myself a cat as a birthday present) so I went home to celebrate with my family. I think every single card or gift that I got that year was cat themed, which I thought was hilarious. I felt like I was at my baby shower.

That following Monday after work, I finally got to go and pick up this little bundle of joy:

I took a day off work that week to spend with Severus and get to know him better. Sev was a feisty little bugger, but warmed up to me immediately, and often slept right beside my head on the pillow.

Once, a few days after I got Sev, I took him over to my friends Ben and Tasha’s house. As soon as I got into the apartment I took Sev out of the carrier and put him on the floor. He immediately looked up at me and made the saddest little meow possible. It was by far, one of the cutest things I have ever seen. We still talk about it to this day.

One day, about 2 weeks after I had gotten Sev, he tried to make a jump, and this is the resulting video:

I still kill myself laughing every time I watch it.

Once Sev was about 6 months old, I took him to the vet for the first time to get his shots. I was going on about his name and blah blah blah and the vet kept calling referring to him as a female. Eventually, I just said, “uh, he’s a male, actually”. To which the vet, very nicely said, “No, this is a female cat. Male cats don’t actually have markings like that.” I immediately felt like an idiot for trying to correct someone who was an expert, but I was completely shocked! I had specifically asked for a male cat, and just assumed that the kittens were too small for me to tell the difference. Woops.

Initially, I was kind of annoyed at the woman who sold the cat to me because I was worried that she would turn out to be this little brat. She is a bit fussy at times, and she’s only just now warming up to Nick, but I still love my little cat, that I now tend to call Seva instead. She’s calmed down a bit now, but the first year I had her, she was the most rambunctious little trouble maker I’ve ever seen.

It’s been over two years now that I’ve had Seva, and I still love her furry little face. She’s more shy and reclusive, but her warm cuddles and head buts in the morning are all worth it. I mean, look at that little face!

If you still haven’t had enough of Seva, check out my Instagram here for even more photos of her day to day antics / unbearable cuteness.

How are you celebrating National Cat Day!? Let me know, or feel free to share a funny story about your cat!

xo, tess.