The crispness in the atmosphere seemed to interweave itself throughout my silky-soft, snowy fur and in and out of my triangular ears as she swung me in circles, smiling brightly with tears of joy streaming down her sapphire eyes. Then she slowed to a standstill and just stood there and gently yet firmly embracing me with ferocity, love, and commitment. I’d never known an emotion as this before. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of humans, although they were always either too little to accept that I was NOT a chew toy, or they were too big and stuck up to accept that they were not the ONLY CREATURES ON THE PLANET. But… this one here… she’s special. She’s not trying to suck on my speckled tail or haughty checking my ears for parasites, even though they’ve already decided to get a dog. No, the moment she happened to glance in my direction, our eyes were locked and our hearts were the only ones to have that key. “Mom.” She had said. “I’d like to have this one.” During that moment, I was expecting her mother to either coo to her child that she could have a cat when she was older, or sigh, roll her eyes, and leave murmuring that a canine was SO much better. But the woman didn’t. All she did was smile warmly and lovingly at her daughter, and walk with her up to me. And now I’m here, being held kindly, softly, in this girl’s little hands, as the sky was the colors of roses, bluebells, and violets surrounding us. Then, she did something that I’d never forget in all my nine lives. She gently stroked my snowy-white fur, then suddenly gasped softly. “Snowball!” She exclaimed quietly with joy. “I’ll name you Snowball.”