Growing Up with Animals

Growing up I think I loved animals more than people.  Around age 4 I became completely obsessed with cats. I felt it was significant that word "kat" was part of my name.  The spelling didn't bother me a bit.  I tore pictures of cats out of magazines and made books out of them.  My favorite book was called "Captain Kitty" and I had to hear it read to me every night.  I can't remember too much about any actual cats we had but at one point one of them did have a litter of kittens.  The first cat I remember by name was called Gin-Gin and I believe that she moved with us from town out to the farm.  She was all black and somewhat stand-offish as I remember, which is possibly due to my over enthusiasm for her species.  I was fond of picking cats up and hugging them close to my neck.  Once I got ringworm on my neck, which was blamed on the cats.  I was ordered to leave them alone but apparently paid little heed, as I remember my Dad opening the upstairs window, where he had been taking a bath, and screaming out at me, "Stay away from the god damn cats!"   This would not be the last time that my love for animals would irritate and confound my Dad!