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Billy is one of our two cats and he is awesome. He’s so awesome in fact, that he gets a blog post written about him and the beginning of his life with us.

In my opinion, everyone needs a Billy. Even if you’re not a cat lover, you’ll fall in love with this one. He has so many attractive qualities: he’s always there when you need him; he’s crazy low maintenance; he’s totally independent; and I’m almost certain he’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

The Story of Billy

Billy sitting inside my cap.

Billy was an anniversary present to Katie in December of 2004, but the way I ended up with him was by total accident.  I knew I wanted to get a cat for her, but I didn’t know exactly where or how.  I knew liked supporting local animal shelters and rescue groups, so I figured I’d start there.  So I called a bunch of shelters I looked up online and eventually found one called “Jefferson Feed.” I spoke to a lady on the phone and inquired about her cat selection and she said they had plenty, and to come on down and retrieve my new cat. So off to Jefferson Feed I went.

On the way to the shelter, I somehow got the name of the store and street mixed up and landed at a place called “Double M Feed” on Jefferson Highway.  When I asked the lady clerk about the cat we spoke about on the phone, she had no idea what I was talking about. I tried reminding her about the conversation we just had and asked if maybe I could’ve been talking to another person, but she was the only lady there. It was then I realized I was at the wrong place. Just when I was heading out to find the real Jefferson Feed, she informed me of a veterinary clinic just across the street that often had cats for adoption.  So I decided to check it out instead.

Handsome little devil.

I asked one of the vets techs if they had any available cats for adoption and she said they had one male kitten.  He had been delivered there days earlier after suffering minor injuries from and accident with a car, but said he was in good health otherwise.  The vet tech asked me to wait in a room and she would bring him to meet me.  She walked in with this bright orange, mangy, banged up, misshapen looking cat.  It was so freaked out it was clawing up the vet tech’s shoulder to get away.  Once she got him to settle down, I tried to introduce myself. He was crazy shy and got really panicky when anyone tried to touch him. I wasn’t totally sure right away if he was right for us, but I took the chance anyway. The vet tech offered to give him all of his shots for free and throw in a pet carrier.

When I brought him home, Katie was totally surprised by him. When it came to deciding on a name, for some reason I thought he kinda looked like a Billy. Katie liked it too and so Billy it became. It took a loooooong time to get him socialized, but once he got to know us, it was almost like he got too comfortable. Always sleeping on our heads at night, constantly needing attention, being picky about his food, etc… Which leads us to the Billy we all know and love today.

About Billy

• Breed:  Orange Tabby
• Gender:  male
• Birthday:  July 1, 2004
• Owned Since:  December 2004
• Hometown:  River Ridge, LA (currently residing in New York, NY)
• Likes:  sleeping, staring at things, thinking about stuff, being slapped on his butt, waking us up at night, cramming himself into things that have an opening, sitting in the windowsill, tuna
• Dislikes:  being awake, having stuff put on him, environmentally friendly litter, the vet, the sound of velcro unstrapping, hiccups

Billy Inside Things

As I mention above, Billy’s likes being inside things.  Over time I’ve caught him in a some funny places.
Here’s a few photos from Billy Inside Things:  (Click them to view the gallery)
Please excuse me for the quality for some of these photos, they were taken with my cell camera.