Gleep
Gleep is a 16lb. male bastard Russian Blue with yellow eyes. I came home from college one day in a truly foul temper, slamming the door behind me. Eddy, my first husband, reprimanded me. "You'll scare him," he said. "Scare WHO?" I demanded. And he held out a half-soaked bedraggled wad of grey... and I fell in love. Eddy and his mom had been out at the flea markets, and he had seen a Free Kittens sign. Gleep was the last one -- the runt of the litter, no doubt. His mother, a registered Russian Blue, had escaped while in heat -- hence the free kittens.
I need to scan in the pictures I have of him as a baby, because if you've only seen him as an adult, you cannot believe how tiny he was. He was all ears and tail back then -- and he slept with me the first night he was home, and every night for years. I named him Gleep, after the dragon in Robert Asprin's Myth series, because he was so cute. By the time he was 1 year old, he had reached his adult size.
In many ways, Gleep got the worst of me. He's been with me since 1989 -- I was 19 years old. He's been through marriages, divorces, other cats, and more moves than I care to remember. By about 1993, the constant changes in his life changed his disposition, and he stopped sleeping with me. This was a terrible blow. Before I left Eddy, I used to have 3 cats sleeping on me every night -- Gleep slept on my legs, Trollop slept on my chest, and Maggot slept on my throat. But I left Eddy (Trollop was really his cat, and she stayed behind with him) and moved 4 times in about 2 years. It was just too much for Gleep to adapt to, and it took years for him to mellow out and once again seek me out for affection. He escaped once, for a little under a week, and I did nothing but cry. The joy I felt when he came home was the greatest relief I've ever known.
Gleep resembles nothing so much as a furry bowling ball with legs, but he has always been my little furry reason for living. An ex had a theory that Gleep is a former lover that I turned into a cat. It's more likely that he's a former lover from a past life who reincarnated into my cat, which is obviously not my fault. (Actually, it is rather flattering.)
Gleep is a very regal cat, and I cannot get a picture that really shows the bone structure of his face. He has a long, dignified face; a long, thick, black-striped tail; and a soft white splotch on his breast.
The thing about my cats is this: I love them all. But Gleep was the first cat I ever had, the first cat to share my life. He has matured into a wise and stately gentleman, and I love him dearly.
