I have adopted a small gremlin. Actually, adopted might be a strong word. It’s closer to “I inherited a gremlin.” Yes. The gremlin I am referring to is my Grandma Eileen’s cat. We have already established that she was an animal lover. And she left behind one cat and I promised her I would take care of it. So here we are. Let me tell you about my gremlin.

As my grandma got older she didn’t always have the strongest memory. One of the things that went? The name of her adopted cat. What’s the cat’s name? She didn’t know. She just called her “Girl.” Okay great. Starting off with this unnamed cat. How old is she? You can probably guess this is also an unknown. We know she’s old because grandma got her through a “seniors for seniors” program that matches senior cats with senior citizens. As you start to get closer you’ll notice a few other things about her. One thing being that she has no teeth. No name. No age. No teeth. So what does she have? Chunk. She is a fat cat. Small in stature but rather compact. Her best feature and probably the thing that stands out most is the fact that her resting face is grumpy. She is pissed at the world. Everyone is beneath her.

It took some time for her to warm up to me. And now she is my velcro baby. She always needs to be touching me. She takes up all the room in my twin bed when we sleep. You can often find her sleeping in a sunny spot in my room or in my desk chair.

What makes her a gremlin? Everything else. Though she has no teeth that doesn’t stop her from constantly biting me. Every morning and all through the night. And yes it does hurt. I can’t tell you how her toothless bites hurt but they do. Could be her tiny alligator jaws. She doesn’t always use her words. Sometimes she throws paws. Tiny paws full of knives. I cut her claws pretty often but they grow back too fast. My hands and arms might never recover.

She was my grandma’s cat. And something grandma and I had in common is our love of snacks. Which has turned into grandma’s cat having a love of snacks. If I am eating anything while sitting near the cat she crawls all over me so she can get a taste. Sometimes she even ventures to sit next to me at the dining room table to try and steal my food.

But I love my tiny gremlin. She connects me to my grandma. She gives me snuggles and love. Also if you have never seen a cat eat spaghetti you’re really missing out.