how i gots my name - nelson

henry helton tagged us wif this meme--thanks, henry!! we're gonna do this one cat/one day at a time, serial-style, 'cause we're also gonna tell about how we got to our furefurr home, too.

Nelson John LaPurr: in the early summer, long years ago, my dad worked for a plumbing supply company named "WinnNelson". my brofur (or sisfur, i can't remember which) and i used to haunt their warehouse. one day, my sibling didn't come wif me, an' i got caught in a big cage. i don't know what happened to my sib, but a nice manbean (who was my dad, but i didn't know it yet) let me stay in his office with him. he started calling me nelson, 'cause he figgered my sib musta been "Winn", and that left me to be "Nelson".

he got me a potty box, fed me, an' let me out to chase mouses in the warehouse. that was ALL RIGHT--i got fed treats and skritched and played with, an' a warm, safe place to sleep--all for doing what i had been doing for free! sometimes i stayed in his office and helped him with his calculator work. sometimes i did his paperwork or arranged his desk.

and efurry five darktimes, i rode on the dashboard of his big blue truck to another place where there were other kitties an' a ladybean an' a boybean. we would stay there for two suntimes, and then go back to the warehouse on the next suntime. the other kitties were pretty nice, but all of them have gone to the bridge since then. i've had to get used to many, many others in my time. and woofies, too. all in all, a pretty ok bunch!

when the cold days came, i was very glad to be sleeping in the warehouse or his office! on a chilly late five-day, i was asleep on top of the little building (inside of which his office was) out in the warehouse, and didn't come when he called to go to the other place. he went without me, and when the ladybean who is now my mom found out, she made him drive all the way back across town to look for me. she cried all the way, and even more as they got near the warehouse 'cause she was afraid she'd see me squashed somewhere at the roadside.

when they came in the front door and went out into the warehouse, dad rolled up the big door to the outside and began calling me. *THUMP* *THUD* i jumped down onto a big box and then to the floor, and meowed. i thought his head hairs (he had more of them, back then) would stand straight up, he was so surprised! the lady picked me up and cried on me, and we went home--for such it became, then. i nefurr went back to the warehouse, 'cause the lady said she couldn't go through such torment again! and so here i am, still. it's a pretty good deal--warm or cool at need, the right food and water, my own corners to nap in, some nip now and then. i wouldn't trade it for a warehouse full of mouses.

oh, yes. the rest of my name? his boss was "John LaPour".