She’s so pretty. To the random person’s eye, her fur is brown. To me, her fur is gold, bronze, and sunlight. The fur on her belly is as pure white as the core of the Sombrero Galaxy. Her fur is long and silky, fluffy and soft.
Her eyes are entrancing. They’re big orbs, like marbles, that magnify the intricacy of her irises, which are green toward the center of her eyes, then the green fades into bronze at the edges. The texture looks like fabric, shot through with copper threads. The slitted pupils are a deep, satin black.
Her nose is wet, and it tickles my skin. Between her nose and mouth is a patch of white fur, like a moustache. It’s so adorable.
She’s big for a housecat. If she could stand on her hind legs and stretch up, her front paws would brush the tops of my thighs. My brother calls her fat, I call her sturdy. I have to use both arms to pick her up and I can’t hold her for very long. When I’m lying on my back, she likes to climb onto my stomach and lay down. It hurts when she putting all her weight on four small paws, and those four paws are digging into my stomach. Then she lays down and purrs, and I forgive her.
She looks so peaceful as she purrs. Her eyes are half-lidded as she makes those vibrations of contentment. Sometimes she purrs so quietly that she sounds like she’s humming. Sometimes she purrs so loud that she sounds like a motorboat. I can feel her little body rumbling when she lays beside me, and it’s relaxing. When she’s snuggled next to me, she might feel so warm and cozy that she’ll fall asleep.
It’s funny to watch her sleep. Her legs will twitch like she’s running and I can see her eyes moving under her eyelids. Sometimes, she even snores. I always wonder what she’s dreaming about.
She can be obnoxious, too. When I’ve got my homework spread all over the floor, she thinks nothing of walking all over my papers and plopping down on a textbook. Or she might crawl into my lap and demand attention. Then she’ll start to groom herself, a soft pink tongue darting out and slurping noises ensuing.

She always seems to know when I need a distraction. When I’m lying on my bed, worrying about all the essays, activities, and homework that I need to do, she’ll jump up beside me and curl up against my side. She’ll nudge my face with hers and her long white whiskers will tickle my nose. Then she’ll snuggle beside me and start purring. The feel and sound of her body rumbling will make me smile. Why does it seem like she’s the only living creature that desires nothing more from me than love and a warm lap?

I know she doesn’t need me all the time though. She’s there in my bed when I go to sleep and she’s there when I wake up, but she doesn’t stay the entire night. Instead, she sleeps in my parents’ bed. I know this because my parents complain about her snuggling in between them and about my father getting a mouthful of fur from her tail. Somehow, she learned that my parents’ alarm goes off before mine. When my parents get up, she races upstairs to jump in my bed before I wake up. She pretends she was with me the whole night.
Despite this bit of trickery, I know she loves me. When I’ve been away from home for a few days, my mother tells me how my cat moped the entire time I was gone because she missed me. When I get back, she avoids me and pretends that she doesn’t know me. I think that this is my punishment for leaving her alone. After a couple of hours, though, she’s back by my side, wanting love. She forgives me for leaving her.
Sometimes, she thinks I’ve left when I really haven’t. I’ll hear her upstairs in my room, meowing piteously, wondering where I am. Then I’ll hear the thud, thud, thud as she scampers down the stairs. She’ll dart into the living room and, upon seeing me, she’ll jump into my lap and purr as I stroke her soft, thick fur.
I don’t know what she’ll do when I leave for college. I don’t know what I’ll do when she won’t be there to curl up beside me. When I think about college, I already start to miss her. I’ve had her for about six years and she’s become such an important part of my life.
For now, I’m just content to have her with me. It’s enough to have her sleeping beside me as I work on homework. It’s enough to feel her snuggled next to me on the couch as I watch TV. It’s enough to listen to her purr as I pet her. She is so sweet, as befitting her name, Sugar.