My Coding Buddy

     A little over three years ago, at my previous apartment, there was neighborhood cat that everyone fed. Each person had their own name for her, but my family and I called her Gato. Well, Gato was the definition of scraggly. She was tiny, had awful skin problems, and was missing chunks of hair, but everyone absolutely adored her. She was a street cat through and through and wouldn't let anyone convert her into a house cat, but we did our best to look after her. Within a year, she had given birth to two litters of kittens. After the second litter, I took her to get fixed and her shots. The first litter I hope was adopted throughout the neighborhood as the feral kittens all eventually disappeared. The second litter remained a mystery for a few weeks. While she was pregnant the second time, we often let her inside to look after her. My partner would rub her belly and feel the kittens kick. She even spent Christmas with us and slept under the tree. Then one day Gato popped up at our place and her belly was magically gone. She stayed inside for two days straight, so we feared that the kittens hadn't made it.

    A few weeks later, we were speaking to our across the alley neighbors and they asked if we wanted to meet Gato's kittens. It turned out she had left them in their yard and they had been looking after them since. It was a total of four, but only three survived. There was a black kitten, a tabby, and a white one. Fast forward to a couple of months later, they asked if we wanted to take one. At first I said no, because our apartment was not pet friendly, but I have always have a soft spot for cats and quickly caved. That's how I ended up with Charlie, the little white kitten who eventually grew into the big chonk I have today. He follows me around everywhere, keeps me up at night, gets holes and fur all over my clothes, it constantly climbing on top of my laptop, and is the best coding buddy any developer could ask for.

    I have a young child and work a full time job, so my days are pretty busy. The only time I get to freely code and study is at night. And almost every night there is my coding buddy curled up next to me. Whether it's at the foot of the bed while I'm propped up on pillows, or curled beside me asleep at my desk, he keeps me company and motivated throughout the night. He's right beside me as I type this and asked that I tell everyone "meow".