Upon first learning in the second grade that beloved illustrator and author Edward Gorey lived with three cats, I set my heart on the same living arrangements for myself someday.

That day arrived in September 2011, when husband agreed under threat of night-after-night of inconsolable wailing on my part to allow us to adopt the two kittens we had been fostering through a rescue for the last month.

Added to our resident smaller-than-average black adult male cat, Zorro, the kittens made three.  And my heart rejoiced.  I could at long last fulfill my dream of being an eccentric and mostly cantankerous illustrator and author who naps daily with three cats.