And last, but not least...

...Rosalie the cat! Aka "the Roser" and "Roosevelt." Here is a glamour shot, in which you can see how exceedingly pretty she is.

Rosalie lived the first three years of her life at Piedmont Virginia Community College, where she had a litter of kittens who I imagine were the cutest little things on earth. Rosalie eventually trusted the person from Animal Connections who was feeding her enough to jump into the person's car on a rainy night, whereupon she was taken to a fabulous foster home. I visited that home to find a cat after my dear Madeline died. I loved all the cats there and it would have been hard for me to decide, except that when I approached Rosie, she chirped at me. The foster care provider said "that's funny, she never talks to me!" I took her home, where she hid under the bed a lot of the time, as she wasn't quite tame. She was, in the way of cats, extremely curious though, so I lured her out with toys.

Here she is in vicious killer mode:

I have no doubt she could get a real mouse -- I'm sure she has, many times.

I had to go very slow with Rosalie and not get discouraged when she didn't warm up to me right away. I do have a lot of patience, though, and I understood why she was scared. She would let me scritch her ears a bit and pet her a bit, but it was months before she would sit in my lap and months after that when she let me pick her up. Now she is the sweetest, most loving, snuggliest cat in the world.

She still loves to play, and the chirp she gave me when we first met has been repeated zillions of times now. She'll chirp before coming to see me, and if I chirp she will trot over to see me. I really feel like she picked me, and I'm so glad she did.