Welcome to the page dedicated to my cat, Ayana. She is very famous online for my profile pictures of her. The most famous being the one where she is gazing out an apartment window during a rainstorm next to a snake plant while wearing the cutest tie by Pusheen I got at PetCo. Unfortunately, at the time of writing it has been lost and they no longer sell it. I’m keeping my eyes peeled though.
I adopted Ayana through my local rescue shelter Fort Collins Cat Rescue which has since renamed itself to Animal Friends Alliance. I got here through a foster home that was run through their website. This was my second but technically first time adopting a cat, more on that in a bit. When I came to college and had to find a place to live after my first year in the dorms, I knew I was going to bring up my cat from back home. Unfortunately, she didn’t adjust to apartment life to well and was stressing her out. I regret not realizing it sooner, but I came to terms with it that I had to give my lifelong friend back to my parents. She deserved to be outdoors bathing in the sun like she was so fond of. Her name is Tigress which I got the name from Kung Fu Panda and was the name of the tiger character that had bright piercing green eyes just like this cute Kitty. Everyone called her Kitty though and so it just kind of stuck. She was my first adoption, though it was much less formal being that I found her through my dad’s neighbor who had a big litter. I got her sometime around December 2007 and so now she is about 14 years old. You can see some pictures of her (Kitty/Tigress) here.
Unfortunately, Kitty passed away on 9/1/21. She lived a great life and spent the last few years of her life in my parents’ new home. It is a very beautiful place with a nice backyard and lawn chairs for her to sunbath, though she preferred the concrete. I guess it like a cold pillow effect. It was a sad day and I had to say bye over facetime. I could hardly choke up the words to say bye. But I let her know how beautiful she was and gave her a few last meows and kisses. She will always be remembered and loved. I don’t know how to handle emotion and so I was thankful I found out in front of my sister and at the time girlfriend. I wasn’t originally going to say bye as awful as that sounds because I knew I wouldn’t be able to. As I said I was barely able to utter a coherent sentence in between silent sob. But thankfully they encouraged me to call back and say bye, being as twistedly sad and beautiful as it was.
In loving memory of Tigress a.k.a. Kitty/Kitten
(click here for the sound of her purr 😻)
So that kind of gives some background to my childhood cat and how she was my first adoption but less formal. When it came time to give Kitty back to my parents and to then find a new friend, I knew this was going to have to be done right and that I couldn’t just pick the first cat I saw. But that’s what happened. When I saw the first picture of Ayana on the website and got in touch with the owner who sent me more, I just fell in love with her and her sister, Luna. Ayana, as well as Kitty, are a short hair domestic breed and Luna was a long hair. I know that I didn’t want a long hair because I am allergic to cats, and I don’t like having cat hair all over which long haired cats are known for. Though I gave Luna the benefit of the doubt because her and her sister were just so damn cute! I finally got to see them both in person and play with each of them. I had a hard time deciding. They both had just gotten their shots, so they weren’t as energetic, but they seem to have bounced back well. Luna was being extremely playful while Ayana, which was named Aspen at the time, was playful but also sleepy and cuddly. And that’s exactly what I was looking for. I talked it over with my mom on the phone to get her opinion and had a hard time agreeing to only getting one and not both. But I got the paperwork done quickly, on I believe February 17th in 2019, and came back as soon as they let me to get Aspen/Ayana. And the rest is history. She was born on 11/30/2018 and so at the time of writing she is just under three years old. She is used to apartment life, and I don’t see me letting her outside until I have a steady career and a good house with a yard. I’m sure when that happens, she will have a lot of fun as she seems to enjoy bird and people watching from windows and chasing my roommate’s cat up and down the stairs. Quiet often we bring over my friend’s cat and they are just the best of friends. Funny enough they loved the name Aspen and so named her kitty that. Aspen is obviously the name of a tree which is one of my favorites, and the name Ayana was one I had to do some digging for. I originally wanted to find a name online that started with the letter ‘K’. But I eventually found Ayana and fell in love with its sound and meaning. Ayana is Cherokee, which my dad’s side of the family descends from, and it means Blossom Tree/blossoming/eternal flower. So, it’s kind of funny that Ayana kept a name that can refer to or is inspired by a tree and her best friend is Aspen. I will link photos of Ayana and Aspen below. Ayana is a unique and funny cat that is so adorable and cute. She is very special to me and being that her picture I use on all my accounts is so popular online and in class (because quarantine had us adopt heavy use of MS Teams) I felt she deserved a page on my website as well as Kitty and Aspen. I also thought this would be fun to look back on in the future as well as many of my other pages, almost like a blog and insight into my life, rather than just a portfolio that is bland and to the point. I hope you enjoy :)
Here is a wonderful slideshow of Ayana and Aspen over the last few years (2019-2021).
