Sophie is the first four legged pet that was all mine, not a family pet. I'd had birds, couldn't keep a fish alive, and had a habit of bringing home stray cats to save them, which was a bad idea with a sister who had a pet mouse.
I got Sophie in my late 20's. A client had asked me if I wanted a kitten, and at first I said no. Then I went home and mentioned it to my roommate, Misty, who said it would be great to have another cat. So I thought about it more, and decided to do it. I called the woman, and that weekend, my mom and I drove up to Richmond to pick one out.
Her son had caught 2 of the kittens, and had them in a box. He opened the box, and tilted it so I could see the two tiny black and white kittens laying in the bottom. They both looked up at me with the sweetest little faces, and started hissing tiny little fierce hisses.
I picked the one she said was the most outgoing and playful. She also said it was female, so I ended up naming her Sophie.
For the next 3 days, she huddled in a corner and mewed at the top of her lungs, day and night. While eating and drinking, she mewed and mewed. Every time I'd pick her up, she'd hiss those little short bursts and spit at me.
I didn't know whether to cuddle and comfort her, or let her work it out on her own. My roommate said to hold her, mimic grooming by rubbing her head with my nose, and feed her milk off my fingertip.
I started with the milk, and she grabbed my hand with her little paws and lapped it up greedily. Then I decided to lay back on the bed, and hold her on my chest. She struggled, but I made her stay there, and she finally just stopped struggling, and lay there, gazing up into my eyes. I petted her, and groomed her, and we fell asleep, me on my back, her draped across my neck. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
6 months later, one day, I picked Sophie up off the couch, flipped her over on her back to hold her like a baby, which she loved, and was very surprised to see a little red kitty erection staring back at me. After 6 months of loving my cute little girl kitty, suddenly I had a boy. But, she came to her name when I called, and I just couldn't imagine changing her/his name. It felt very weird to refer to her as him, but eventually I got used to it, and we decided that Sophie would be short for Sophocles, and that he was very in touch with his feminine side.
I was pretty surprised at how some of my male friends reacted to a boy cat named Sophie. Some of them were pretty disturbed by it. They tried to talk me into changing his name, but to me he would always be Sophie. He didn't care, he was a cat!
