Closer

San Francisco, California

Closer and his human, Gretchen! (Well trained human.)

Back in the day, the San Francisco SPCA used to take kitties in cages to some street locations at lunchtime and on weekends; they had a very very high adoption percentage in those days, before someone gave them lotsa money for an adoption center.

Anyway, I was in one of those cages one Sunday in 1991, in front of the hardware store on Castro Street. (Anyone who knows Dennis probably knows where that is). They called me "Hercules" there -- because they had to call me something. I was just about a year old then...and very cute.

A nice white-haired lady saw me and talked baby kittie talk to me, but she left and went home to her own kitties.

The next day, I was out on the street in a cage again, this time in the Financial District. And this person who hadn't had a cat in 3 weeks came by and said: "That's a face I could wake up to for the rest of my life." And she adopted me. She took me to her office for about an hour, but those CPAs she worked for didn't like kitties and told her to take me home right away. So she did, but she didn't like "Hercules" for a kitty name; she knew she'd be calling me "Herky-Jerky" if that stuck.

And that night, when this person went to bed, I jumped up next to her and started purring. That wasn't close enough: pretty soon I climbed up on her pillow and wrapped all my paws around her head. That's where I got my first name.

Closer Muffinbutt
<19 lbs of burning cat love>

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