Okay, human time here...

Hi, I'm Misha. Thanks for checking out my cats' web site, Paws for Thought. They (and I) truly appreciate it. You're welcome to check out my site -- Kitsune no Hinansho -- as well. Be warned, however, that I spend more time on this site than my own!

Before I explain Paws for Thought, you'll have to suffer through a bit of background info on me... I'll try and make it brief!

I have loved cats for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories include toddling after the neighborhood cats as fast as I could (much to my parents' chagrin -- I was, and still am, very allergic to cats). Sometimes I would grab them by the tail. Hey, I was only two or three -- I've learned a few things since then!

Anyhow, I used to have allergic reactions, really bad ones. My eyes would usually swell shut. I've been told I was lucky it wasn't my throat that closed up (yes, I was that allergic!)... About the time I was five or six, my father decided that the best cure for my allergies was a cat. And lots and lots of Actifed...

Mimi, whom you'll read about on the Memorial page, was that cat.

So here we are in the present, almost. Late 1995. I finally get hooked up with an ISP, and get on the net. My cats are no strangers to computers and being online -- I used to be the SysOp of a BBS, and Gypsy Rose was notorious for climbing on the desk, "chatting" with the user online, and sometimes disconnecting them. I wind up getting a second email address for the cats, thinking, "oh, hey, it's cute, and I can't be the only person doing it..."

When I figured out a little bit about HTML, I decided I was going to put up a web page. Not for me, for Gypsy. Gypsy did the typing (she's a horrible speller), and I eventually ended up with a simple little page, done from her point of view.

Then I happened upon Usenet, and the newsgroup rec.pets.cats. I discovered that my cat was not the only one on the net, and not the only one with bad grammar and spelling habits. She made friends quick...

And along came Suck...

I noticed my counter starting to register a couple dozen hits a day. Not having really given out my link, I wondered where the interest came from. Doing a search on Alta Vista provided me a link to this page, a recent Suck article. Basically, the bottom half, where I read...

"Which brings us to Sherry Turkle's cat. And to Usenet, the virtual place where the Club Caribe detractor accused its denizens of idiotic enjoyment. And to something called MEOWCHAT.

MEOWCHAT doesn't have rooms, or dungeons, or amphitheaters. It isn't graphical. It's not even realtime. It's just a bunch of grown adults acting on rec.pets.cats like -- well, as if they were their cats.

It's as if the cats have been taught to read and write, then lobotomized:

ooh, lawndry is good. I like it wen meow-my does lawndry. then I have nice-warm place to sleap on, cawse she puts the warm cleen stuf on the bed, to fold. My favrits are sweaters (blak) an pajamas. She shoos me away but then I creap - evr so slowly - back ovr to the close an sleap sum mor."

Yep, you guessed it -- the quote was mine (via Gypsy). And the words "sum mor" were a link to my cat's page.

At first, I was offended. I mean, who the heck were they to mock those of us who were just having some fun? Then I talked to one of my friends, who was a long-time Internet user. "What? You were mentioned in Suck? That's sort of an honor to be noticed by them!"

Um, okay. Whatever. So it's my 15 milliseconds of fame; after all, they did choose my post out of all the others possible, perhaps because I had a web page. I took advantage of this dubious publicity to spruce up my page, adding some new graphics and pages for each cat. And it's slowly grown from there, winning several awards along the way.

In the midst of a major rennovation, Paws for Thought was moved from one ISP to this current one, due to problems I'd rather not get into at this time. Then I got sidetracked, both by finals, and my grandmother having a heart attack (yes, the same grandmother in Toss' story). So I procrastinated.

Finally, when I managed to acquire some consistent free time, I got back in to the rec.pets.cats scene, and my cats wound up being the Sekrit Santa coordinators for this most recent "Kissamouse".

(Yes, cat families are sending a present to another cat family involved with the newsgroup. Almost 90 "kitty homes" got involved, and it all worked out great.)

Anyhow, in the process of working on the Sekrit Santa web site, I decided it was about time to finish Paws for Thought and set it up for people to see again.

I hope to have enough time to devote to this page, updating, if not frequently, at least somewhat regularly, so it doesn't become stagnant. I've got a few projects lined up for this year that will hopefully make this site a bit more unique. And I hope to re-scan some of the pictures, since I finally have my own scanner.

For those of you wondering why I spend my spare time letting my "cats" write web pages, plus numerous articles on Usenet, and answering quite a bit of fan (and the occasional hate) mail, I don't have a neatly packaged answer for you. Sorry. I suppose it takes a bit of imagination, humor, and whimsy to let the individual purr-sonalities of someone's cat(s) take shape, even if it's only "pretend"... I suppose the best thing I can say is "Friendship comes in many forms." Even if it's behind a furry mask with whiskers.

In March of '98, I was fortunate enough to attend (and actually help plan) a "Clowder" in Northern California. It was held at a restaurant in San Carlos, and sixteen other people showed up, most of them "regulars" of rec.pets.cats.community, and their spouses. It was a lot of fun getting to meet all these people, and looking at all the photos of our cats. But it wasn't just "kitty stuff" -- we talked about so many different things, and had such a great time. I can't wait till the next clowder!

As I sit here typing this up, I'm being pestered by Sparkle, who is dividing her attention between sneakily trying to prod at my necklace, and flopping down on the keyboard (if you only knew how many times I've had to hit the backspace key...). Toss just went back outside, after I, his oh-so-mean mommy, stuffed a pill down his throat, then gave him several Pounce treats and escorted his furry orange rear out the back door (he got bit in a fight recently, and is on antibiotics). Gypsy is glaring at me (and, I'm assuming, Sparkle) while laying pristinely on my pillow. Last I checked, Abra was sleeping on the hood of my newly-washed car, and Bandit was curled up underneath the dryer's exhaust vent, telling me in her Siamese voice that she is, as always, starving to death.

These are my furkids. I love 'em to pieces. My fiance loves them too, even though at times he pretends to be all gruff, with the "who needs cats" attitude. But he's a softy. Who else would climb up a tree twice to rescue the ungrateful Gypsy Rose, help me trim claws and pill sick kitties, help calm a scared kitty on a ride to the Emergency Vet's office, let them drink out of his glass, and feed them tidbits when they beg for "people food"? Not to mention letting them smurgle, drool, and shed all over him, plus jumping in his lap (yes, there), and walking all over him?

I'm interested in knowing what you think about this website. If you haven't signed the guestbook, please do. Or you can email me via my cats. Just make sure to mark it "For the Hoomin" -- unless you want one of the cats to reply.

Thanks...

This page created November 6, 1997. Last updated March 30, 1998.