My Feline Receptionist

Giuseppe attentively listens to my customer explaining the updates he wants in a design job for me.

I’m so glad to have an assistant. Now if I can only teach him, or one of the others, to do the easy stuff, I can get the big things done much faster.

But then they’ll want their own computer. And then they’ll figure out e-mail, and Facebook and YouTube and Skype and…I’d better think about this.

In the meantime, Giuseppe adores his Uncle Howard, who has known Giuseppe since he was a wee fuzzball. Uncle Howard even adopted to give to his son one of Giuseppe’s half-sisters, Charlotte, from Lucy’s litter, the year before Giuseppe and the Fantastic Four were born.

I have photos or memories of most of my other cats greeting their “Uncle Howard”—each of the Fantastic Four and their mom and Lucy the year before, Stanley, Sophie, Cookie, Kelly, and especially Namir, who Howard threatened to tuck inside of his coat and leave with. His habit when he stopped by to drop off work has always been to greet all the cats when he came in the door, then talk to me when he was done with them. Howard and I have been working together since 2002, but I didn’t know right away that he was a cat person. I didn’t realize until a little later that most of the people who became my customers as I began my business a decade ago were cat people. It wasn’t a requirement, it just worked out that way. Funny how life brings you what you need even if you’re not looking for it.