Aloha! My name is Napaia and that's me laying beside the flower pot. The fella in the pot is my half-brother, Simba. There used to be catnip growing in there, but *he* ate it all! Our humans brought us here to Hawaii with them. That airplane flight was terrible! It seemed so long, and we had to be separated from each other the whole time! Then when we finally got our paws back on the ground, we were snatched away in our crates and taken to a place where there were many, many other cats and dogs of all sizes and breeds! Our human mom and dad told us they were very sorry, but because Hawaii requires it, they'd have to leave us there for awhile. They promised to come see us, and even had a really nifty lady who came and visited with us a few times each week. But we really missed our own people a lot, and we weren't allowed to be with each other to snuggle. We'd *never* been kept apart before!

I didn't like being in that place, so I went on a hunger strike! Within the first month I'd managed to lose a whole pound (pretty good for a lil gal who only weighed 4.5 pounds when they locked me up, eh?). That *really* worried my mom, so she and dad managed to convince the quarantine office that they really should allow Simba and me to be transferred to the island where mom and dad lived. (Course, a little bit of this was because of worrying about me, mom started having angina pretty badly.) We were flown from Oahu to the island of Hawaii by a nice man from the quarantine office, who met our people parents in Kona then drove us to a nearby veteranarian who was qualified to allow us to finish our quarantine time with him.

That place was really neat! The people were so nice to us.. like they really liked us. They'd pet us and talk to us, and even gave us toys to play with. See, this nifty vet would put things on top of our cages, then turn his back so we could grab 'em, and we did! Mom and dad also could easily come down more often to visit us. It was so nice to be held by them again.

Shortly after New Years we were allowed to go home. That was really great! So many new things and places to explore! We ran all over the house figuring out the quickest way into closets and cupboards. We even figured out how to open a lot of drawers with nifty toys in them - just for us. At least, we figured if they were there, they *must* be for us.

The same day we got home, our 3 dogs also arrived. Strange, but we'd actually missed them! We sure didn't waste any time letting them know that it was OUR house and they'd just have to adjust to that. Mom and dad said that us all being together again was the very best Christmas gift of all.

Mom and dad sat me down and explained to me that they were doing everything they could to try to find me a 'suitable' husband, but were not able to find any. (kitty sigh) Ya see, my brother Simba was real sympathetic, but couldn't help even if it woulda been allowed, since he'd been neutered at a very young age. I'd seen this handsome guy in the quarantine area who looked pretty good to me, but my folks said... "no way - he's not a Burmese, he's a Russian Blue". For some reason they seemed quite set in their insistence that I only have babies with another Burmese. Wonder if this is against the laws of prejudice in the Kitty Constitution? Oh well, as any good daughter would do, I went along with their ideas, even though it didn't make me too happy.

Nearly 3 years went by - with me saying "I wanna be a Mama!", and them hunting all over for a pretty husband for me - with no luck... UNTIL! One day mom was at her computer searching again for a proper husband for me and Lo! she found one! They discussed it and decided that YES I was to not only have a husband, but also a new sister to be a mama too!