117 sleeps

Hierdie is Stella. Sy is die oulikste kat in die hele wereld! Ek mis haar baie, maar ek weet sy is gelukkig by my ma.

(shout out to Der for the translation! It had better say what I want it to say!)

Today is South Africa's Day of Reconciliation. I'm celebrating by reviewing contracts at work.

My colleagues, DomTastic and Der, submitted pics of their dogs to an online cute-pet-photo contest to Die Burger, a local Afrikaans daily. I, unfortunately, missed the cut off. So, I have submitted a pic of my cat (who has lived with my mom for 7 years in Canada, so technically my mom's cat maybe?) on this post with a cute little Afrikaans tag line.

Stella was originally Lebowski, until I took him to the vet and found out that he was a she. When she was a kitten she used to curl into my neck at night to sleep. I thought it was the most adorable thing in the world. She'd curl up, I would scratch her neck, she would purr herself asleep. I was told at the time that it would create a bad habit for her if I continued to let her sleep like that. I rubbished that - how can you not let a cute little kitten curl up in your neck and go to sleep?

The habit lives on. She still likes to sleep in a neck. Unfortunately, she's got Norwegian Forest in her which means she is a) built like a truck and b) weighs about 15 lbs. My mother often wakes up, choking and unable to breathe, with 15 lbs of furr unconscious and snoring on top of her. My cute little Stella!