This starts my (hopefully light-hearted) blog posts on what Pagan/Witch stereotypes are true for me.

Stereotype Fulfilled #1: Witches have black cats as familiars.

My mother would tell you that I’ve been attracted to black cats since I was a little girl. Strangely enough all the cats I’ve picked out in my life have been black. Never white. Never gray. Never anything fancy, really. Just black. I love my black cats.

This is Jasper, though we call him both Pete and Binky more than Jasper. I suppose you can call him my familiar. I like to call him my soul mate though, but don’t tell my boyfriend. Jasper means the world to me to the point that I’ve broken up with people in the past over them not liking him.

I rescued Jasper when he was just 8-weeks-old. His mother had been a stray that was hit by a car. He was the only boy in his litter, and I was determined to have a boy cat – Though I almost brought home a girl that was very sweet. But fortunately my mother reminded me that I wanted a boy. When I picked him up and he started trying to squirm away from me, I knew it was love.

A few days after getting him home, we discovered that he had the herpes virus. It was a frightening experience, because the poor thing would start coughing and foaming at the mouth. So for our first month together he was on antibiotics to fight a secondary infection.

But he’s well now! Well, he sometimes has a flare-up of herpes, and he coughs still from time-to-time. You wouldn’t realize that he had it, though, because the cat has more energy than I’ve seen other cats have.

He’s going on five-years-old. He has ripped up my couch, because I’ve finally given up on having nice furniture with him around – Nothing will stop him from clawing. He will make you play fetch with him for hours at a time. He chirps at birds. He does this thing where he curls his head under your chin just right when you’re holding him that makes my heart just melt. And he’s always around to watch whatever I’m doing.

So basically I love him. I love him lots and lots. I think I love him more than anything else in the world, but once again don’t tell my boyfriend!