[ride the whirlwind]

people often say she looks like she got her nose in the ink well.

Haven't had anyone say that about Sadie yet but it's prolly just a matter of time...I'd always wanted a calico and the black patch on her face helped win me over.

[GretchenEE]

My best cat *ever* was a bright, blotched calico with a kinked tail named Tiki. Her mom belonged to some neighbors and I visited them to death while the kittens were getting ready to be adopted. I begged and begged for her but my mother said "We can't afford her." (Strange, very strange, coming from a woman who adopted stray cats like they were US savings bonds.) On my ninth birthday, my parents gave her to me with a red bow around her neck.

I trained her to do tricks. There are some pets with whom we bond in a way inexplicable. She was my little anchor in childhood.