The Crazy Cat Baby

Shortly after waking up one morning, Arianna started to look for her toy, "Pinky."  It was so imperative that we find Pinky that Arianna would not eat breakfast or take a bath until locating her.  We searched everywhere with no luck. Finally after an hour, an email to Marc, and a text to Grandma, Pinky showed up.

During our search, I became increasingly aware of the extent of cats in our home.  It's no surprise to anyone that, for most of her life, Arianna has been obsessed with cats.  It also shouldn't come as a surprise that most people like to purchase Arianna gifts they know she'll love.  Specifically cats.  And she does love them - very much.  So much in fact that our house has become overrun with cats. 

There are roughly 47 cats in this picture, not including the ones she keeps at my parents.  The majority of these cats have names.  Some creative, some descriptive, and some duplicates, but Arianna remembers and refers to them all by name.  She also gets very upset if she asks you to hand her one cat, and you hand her someone else.  Here's some examples...

The creatively named (L-R):  Duma, Stripes, Beer, Figaro, and Cashmere

(I don't know where she got "Beer" from.  She said he heard it in Target.)

The descriptive bunch (L-R):  Pinky, Boots, Princess Cat, the Other Princess Cat, Pink Hello Kitty, Ballerina Hello Kitty, Mommy's Hello Kitty, and the Pink Cat

The uncreatively named (L-R):  Grandma Cat, Big Cat, Purple Cat, Little Cat, Mittens, and Mistletoe

(Mittens is from a movie, and Mistletoe is from a book)

The Tiger Family:  Tiger, Mommy Tiger, Baby Tiger

The Maries:  Marie's Mommy, Marie, Marie, and Birthday Marie

(Marie & Marie are also known as "The Twins" and must be together at all times.)

Here are her two favorite cats - Bottles (who meows, purrs, and drinks a bottle) and Seraphina (a Barbie cat).

Aside from stuffed animals, Arianna's cat obsession comes out in other ways too.  For example, when we sing "Old MacDonald" at least the first 3 animals have to be cats.  When we go shopping she seeks out anything with a cat on it - clothes, books, even beach towels.  And - probably the most hysterical of all - when she was taking these pictures and I told her to "say cheese" she said "No.  Everybody say 'MEOW!'"

Interestingly enough, Arianna doesn't care much about real cats.  Which is actually working out really well for us after the exile of Kaiya and all.)  She thinks watching them is funny, but doesn't really want to touch them.  Which makes me hopeful that I'm not, in fact, raising a future crazy cat lady.  

UPDATE:  9/3/12 - Bottles and Seraphina are out.  The lasting favorite (for at least two months now!) is Figaro, the orange striped little guy pictured in the "Creatively named."