I am a: Quirky sysadmin. Geek. Gamer. Comic fangirl. My little space, my home on the interwebs. I blog about personal stuffs, work, various coding projects, and anything else I feel like.

Hobie was my long time companion and beloved family member. Half Himalayan Persian and Siamese. All attitude.

I got Hobie just after my 13th birthday. I was in my “surfing” phase, and was particularly fond of the brand Hobie, and naturally thought it would be a cool name for a cat. hehehe Hobie was a bright and energetic kitten, a ton of fun to watch and play with … though a bit clumsy. It was evident early on that “grace” is definitely NOT her middle name. LOL! She was constantly running into and falling off of things — in fact, I once watched her walk beside my parents’ pool and fall in!

Something else that we noticed in her early years: she’s vocal. OK, that’s an understatement. You’ve heard of cats that will “talk” back to you, right? Well mine carried on full conversations. In fact, I had considered changing her name to “Siren” because she would stand at the top of the stairs in my parents house and wail NON-STOP for 20-30 minutes at a time if she didn’t get what she wanted. She sounded like a police siren, LOL!

My mom affectionately referred to her as “loud mouth.”

Her propensity for conversation came in handy though, at the strangest times. For whatever reason, she liked to make a lot of noise when I was on the phone. It was not uncommon for my friends to think that I was being mean to her because she was making so much racket! However, I’m told that she also sounded like a child crying — I used this to my favor when on the phone with telemarketers, LOL!

“Look, as you can clearly tell, I have a kid crying her head off in the back room, so why don’t you just let me save you and me both some time and tell you now that I don’t want whatever you’re selling. Thank you and have a nice day.” Click.

Usually I could get to her speak on command, though she was not always as obliging: wanna hear?

She was pretty smart for a cat. She knew what “No” meant — she learned that one early, LOL. She knew that “Hungry” meant that she was about to be fed. She knew that the sound of the doorbell meant someone (usually a stranger) was at the door and/or about to come in — she wasn’t open to people she didn’t know. She’d run and hide from you if she’s not used to you. And if you chased her, WATCH OUT! She would bite and scratch as if she were 5 times bigger than she really was. In fact, she thought she was THE big shit around here. She was a bit territorial you could say. In the past, she was known to growl at a few of my dates and wedge herself between us on the sofa.

In fact, for Christmas one year a guy I was dating at the time gave me a set of kitty food dishes. One of them I loved and used it every day … it said “Psycho Kitty”

She knew that “Lay down” meant that I wanted her to get settled and lay still. She knew that “Bed time” meant that I was going to bed and she would race me up the stairs and hop onto the bed and wait for me. Jim teased her sometimes by saying “Hobie, bed time!” and she would run up the stairs then come back and look at us as if to say “Hey, aren’t you coming?”

Growing up, my brother was a bit mean to her at times. I think one of the funniest things I’d ever seen was the cat chasing my brother across the back yard. From what I remember, he scared her somehow and she turned and attacked him, scratching and snarling. I saw a white red-haired blur go by, then Hobie hot on his heels! ROFL He tried to escape by jumping up on the HVAC unit (to which she quickly followed), then climbed up one of the poles on the swing set and hung there until I collected the furious furball. *g*

After that, she was never fond of kids — but she adored Jessie.

She was the best friend and companion that I’d ever had and I will love her and miss her for the rest of my life.