Ten years ago, I wrote about different shows and films that I hate… and sometimes love to hate. Bridges of Madison County, Girls and Forrest Gump were discussed. (And yes, I know I need to address why I have taken a ten year hiatus from this blog. I will. I promise, but not today.) So as I was thinking about my next post this afternoon, I got to thinking that I now have two completely different cats than I did ten years ago. (RIP Macy Gray and Stevie Wonder.) And then as I thought about how I should share info on my two new cats, who are also fairly awesome, I was reminded that I hate the musical Cats almost as much as the Bridges of Madison County. At some point in the last decade, my friend Christian was a nominator for the Tony awards, which required him to go to every single show on Broadway — every one, no holds barred. I was the lucky recipient of being his plus ones to several good shows, Hello Dolly with Bette Midler being a good example. However, I also volunteered to go with him to the then most recent production of Cats, because I thought, why not?

That was a mistake. About five minutes into act one, I deeply regretted this decision. I mean, I am a total cat lady. I love me some furry kitty. But no, not the Broadway show featuring my favorite animal. Nope. Never again will I see any part of Cats the musical. Don’t tell the Tony people, but I made us leave at intermission, which Christian felt super guilty about. But it was just that bad. I couldn’t.

So this is a long and winding way of me trying to tell you that I now have two new cats. And all three of us miss Covid. I know that sounds crazy, but we do. And here’s why. In March of 2020, I was traveling like a mother fucker as I always do, so this news of this random flu from China was super disruptive to my schedule and my life. And then boom. It happened. Everything shut down, and at first I didn’t know what to do with myself. The city went dead. There actually wasn’t a sound from the pavement like the lyric in the god awful Cats the Musical song. Working from home? That never ever occurred to me. I was a go-into-the-office-and-get-on-a-plane-and-fly-everywhere person.

But as the months and years have gone by, I’ve pulled a complete 180 on the work from home concept, and never ever want to go into the office ever again. I do — but I really just can’t wait to be working from home as soon as I get the go-into-the-office thing over every week.

Plus, in 2020, I found myself really enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to go anywhere. There was no travel. And United still gave me my fancy status — despite not getting on a plane ever. It was a win-win. By the way, I am now way beyond 1k — I’ve been the “they don’t tell you how you get it” status on United for the last eight years.

So this forced doing nothing during Covid was really amazing especially since I still had my airline status! And the cats super appreciated the fact that I was always home – and it was me and them against the world. I also never contracted Covid until just a few months ago in Antartica of all places. But I will save Antartica and all of my travel stories for another post. And also the fact that it took four years for me to get Covid.

So now let me introduce the cats.

After the orange monster was elected, I like many of us, was super depressed and felt like I had no hope. Obama represented hope after all, and he was leaving. Simultaneously, Macy was not doing well, and finally, in January of 2017, she passed. I was devastated and so was Stevie. I would come home to him crying for his sister. It was heartbreaking. So because I had lost hope, and because Stevie needed a friend, I set out looking for a kitten to hang with him, and that cat would be named Barack Obama.

I scoured petfinder.org and finally came upon a photo of a light gray cat that had huge ears that looked exactly like Barack Obama. It was actually uncanny. So I called the rescue, asked if Pongo (Barack Obama’s current name) was available. They said, why yes he is, and you can come get him tonight. They were WAY out in Brooklyn — like far — close to where Liz and Nick lived for one year, which was such a pain — blech. Despite the distance, I committed to going to get him that evening.

But first, I needed a session with my telephone psychic — because you know, that’s what you do when you’re going to adopt a cat. So I get on the phone with her, and we are chatting and she said, “Melissa, I see an adorable female kitten in your future. I don’t see a male. And this female cat will have a name starting with an H.” Just as she said that, I looked up at my computer screen and above Pongo was a sweet little female kitten named Hallmark. And she was at a rescue in Manhattan, very close to my office.

Ugggh. What to do? Barack Obama looked exactly like Barack Obama — and I needed hope. But the psychic had to be right, right? So fast forward, I am now the proud mother of Malia Obama, or Hallmark, and she is everything the psychic said she would be. Pure joy. The rescue that had Pongo/Barack Obama was not happy with me for not coming to get him, but I just felt like I had to honor the signs.

Sadly, Stevie never really recovered from losing his sister, even though he and Malia did get along well. And ten months after Macy left us, Stevie did too. It was horribly sad. Losing furries sucks.

Malia handled being a solo cat much better than Stevie, but I did think she needed a friend as well. So eventually, I found a cat named Salmon, who was part of a litter found at the Lincoln Tunnel. Salmon’s siblings were named Tunafish and Roe. Yup. And I had to go to New Jersey to pick him up. And he smelled like perfume. It was so strange. I think the woman fostering him doused him in some really strong smelling shampoo. It was pretty gross.

I immediately named Salmon “Jackson” — but his vet still calls him MJ — and my Jackson is not into little boys at all. Unlike Malia, Jackson is also not pure joy 24/7. You really gotta give him some solid attention almost every moment of the day for him to be happy. So that’s why he enjoyed Covid. I was around all the time to attend to his needs. Malia just enjoyed Covid, because she pretty much enjoys everything.

So those are the new cats and an explantion of why we all miss Covid.