How Expressive Kitty Met Nicole

The bottom line: If you know me, you know Expressive Kitty. Period. Down pat. Why? Because I draw him when I’m bored, I’m always making mental plans for my business, and he seems to have the weird ability to sneak himself into most conversations (generally in the form of: ‘Oh! Is that an owl?’)

Naturally, all my friends know about Expressive Kitty. One in particular is sitting next to me on my parent’s roof at the moment (I’m dog-sitting for the week) and told me to write a story about how Expressive Kitty met her. Naturally, if a fan makes a request, I must oblige. So, here goes.

It was a dark and stormy night.

Okay, fine. It was probably a pleasant spring day. It was my junior year of high school. I was taking an English class at Pace University. It was supposed to help me get into college.

Yeah...

One of my assignments was to make a children’s book that related to our final paper topic. My topic at the time had something to do with Lee Strasberg and his predecessor Staninslavsky and their acting methods. So, naturally, Expressive Kitty, actor extraordinaire, was born.

Remember, I was in my junior year of high school. I was balancing a zillion extracurricular activities and maintaining a high GPA. I was more stressed than anyone should be in high school and I did not have a lot of time for much. So, of course, I thought it would be a great idea if I drew and illustrated all 28 pages of the children’s book by hand!

Even better: I only had time to work on it the night before it was due! So, the day it was due, I showed up to school with a halfway-finished children’s book and a pack of colored pencils. I brought it around to all of my classes and frantically tried to color in the illustrations on each page before I had to leave school and rush off to Pace. Nicole, being the gem she is, helped me color. And that’s how she met the Kitty.

That wasn’t the end, though. Since then, she’s sat through conversation after conversation of my insane plans for a business revolving around this ball of orange fur. She’s read and edited chapters of the novel. She’s sat with me trying to think of a logo. She’s eaten every baked good I’ve given her and she’s encouraged me to actually give this crazy idea a shot by being so enthusiastically involved. So, I just have to take a second to say:

Oh, and also thanks for letting me sit on the roof with my sweater over your head. So I don’t get sunburned. Yep. I should invest in some sunscreen.