Lola, summarized

My Lola has many endearing traits. First, she likes to be picked up and carried around. She'll settle into your arms and let you walk around the house with her for a long time, it's pretty cool. She looks at you when you're talking to her. Although I don't think she understands English, she and I manage to communicate well enough.

Her phrases consist of squeaks, beeps and chirps that mean "I'm here, don't step on me!" "My bowl is empty!" "The lap belongs to me." "Where have you been?" and "Uh. I don't think so." She doesn't make normal cat noises. When she squeaks, that means "Please let me out, I'm serious here."

When I yell "hey!" she stops clawing. When I call her, she comes. She wants to be validated before she'll eat in the morning, so somebody has to go down to the kitchen and rattle the dry food in her bowl.

She is so darned personable that I'm not sure I can ever have another cat, because I don't know where I'd ever find another one like Lola. This is why she's not allowed to go outside. The couple of times she's been out of the range where I know her location, I've freaked out.

Part of this is because she almost always stays in the yard--I have known her to cross a street only once--and because she is afraid of traffic noise.

Lola is a Maine Coon-Persian mix. Her paws, face and eyes are like a Coon; her body and coat are Persian. Her personality, I am happy to report, is more like the Coon; her substantial coat is more like the Persian. If I were ever going to try to have another cat, I think I'd try a Maine Coon, but I know it wouldn't be quite like my Lola.

Note: I'm in the process of switching computers around and setting up a network in the house. This means that my updates over the next few days may be sporadic. Deal with it. Nobody else updates over the weekend as much as I do, anyway.

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