The Day Braeya Gets Her Own Post

Yesterday I had a question about Braeya's name, and given that I still hadn't figured out what I was going to blog about today, I decided to give Little Miss her very own post. It's been a while since she was properly featured on the blog, and if you're new(er) around here, you might not know her little kitty biography.

But before you can know about Braeya, you have to know about Kaegan.

Back in 2001, I was a year out of college, and the roommate I had at the time was about to break her lease and move out of our shared house three months before our year together was up. I'd never lived alone in a house before, and I was absolutely terrified about doing it. I had a new roommate lined up, but there would still be that three month gap of alone-time. For my birthday that year, one of my good friends gifted me a kitten, hoping he would help keep me company. I asked her if she would name him for me, and she chose the name Kaegan. (That's pronounced Kay-gun.) I have no idea where she got the name or the spelling, but that's how the little yellow kitten became Kaegan.

When my new roommate moved in, she got a kitten of her own, and she named him Igor. Kaegan and Igor were pretty good friends and thoroughly enjoyed being lazy together. The four of us lived together for about three years, and then Angela and Igor moved on to their next adventure, and Kaegan and I were on our own again.

I thought maybe Kaegan might be lonely, since he didn't have Igor anymore. I started thinking about getting a second cat, and right after Kaegan turned five, my friend Kari told me she had a new litter of kittens at her house. If I was interested, I could pick whichever one I wanted. She sent me pictures of all of them, and I fell head over heels in love with the one little kitten that looked nothing like the rest of the family. The mama and daddy cats were black and white, as were all of the kittens.

Except one.

She looked Siamese with her distinct coloring and bright blue eyes. I had to have her! I agonized over her name. It was right about that same time that I realized based on my age and lack-of-husband status that I might never have children, so I looked over my list of names for my someday kids. I'd pretty much planned to only have boys, and I really liked the "Br" blend for the beginning of names. (Bracken, Braeton, Bronson, Brogan...you get the idea.) I did have one token girl name in the bunch, and the spelling had the same "ae" that was in Kaegan. So that's how Braeya came to be the cat's name. (And it's pronounced Bray-uh, by the way.)

I picked up Braeya from Kari's house on Father's Day and took her home, where she promptly got lost.

Seriously.  In the house.

I'd had her for all of a day when it happened. I was painting a bedroom and didn't want her traipsing through the paint pan, so I carted her (along with her food, water, and litter box) into the bathroom so she and my floors would be safe. When I went to get her a while later, she was gone. I called. I begged. I put out treats. Nothing. I asked my parents (who were helping me paint) if either of them had gone into the bathroom and accidentally let her out. They didn't think they had, but when she didn't respond after a half hour or more of calling, they wondered if maybe they had.

We looked everywhere. Mom and Dad even drove around the neighborhood, in case she'd somehow slipped out a door when we went out of the house.

About two hours later, as I sobbed on the phone to my sister about how I missed little Braeya so much, I heard the tiniest meow. I sprinted to the bathroom and saw two tiny paws stretching out from under the washer. She tumbled out, shook off her (clearly deep) nap and toddled toward me. And that was the moment she earned a middle name. Braeya Jo. And we've had to use that middle name many times since.

Braeya is 13 now. It turned out, by the way, that Kaegan did NOT want a sister. I was mistaken about him being lonely. He never did like her. He was an old man-cat in a middle-aged-cat's body, and all he wanted to do was sit quietly and be left alone. She wanted to play and climb and be adventurous. (Usually on him.) For five years, Kaegan tolerated her. He had just turned ten when he wound up with a mysterious illness and died quickly.

I worried Braeya would be lonely, but after a few days of seeming confused about where he went, she advanced to her new role as CEO of our household. By that time I was commuting to the radio station, so getting an additional pet was out, and I knew it. Braeya wouldn't welcome one anyway. She gets downright offended anytime we dog-sit. She hisses and growls and is most inhospitable.

When I started dating Ryan she immediately fell in love with him and has had little regard for me since. If he's not home and I am, she'll snuggle up to me, but if he's here, she's his girl all the way.

She hates storms, children, dogs, and anything else that makes noise. She loves our small group, drinking water from the sink, and begging for our dinner. She also loves looking out the window, having an audience when she eats, and taking a bath in front of company.

She turned 13 in people years this year, but I think she's been a teenager in spirit for a long time.

She's still amazingly cute, and when she's waking us up at 3 a.m. for a drink, being amazingly cute is what buys her any points at all.

So that's our Braeya girl! We love her! She definitely makes us laugh and keeps our lives interesting!