Noe

Noe is my little cat. Early Sunday morning, September 4th, 2000, there was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near Napa. It shook me out of my bed in San Francisco. After Trina and I got over the initial "Is this the Big One?" panic, we noticed a wee chirping sound coming from outside the house. I figured it was a bird.

The next morning, I went out to my backyard, where the chirping sound seemed to be coming from. I saw a tiny little kitten in the bushes. We decided that the mother must be nearby and would return for the little thing sometime during the day, so we headed out to the Alá Carte Alá Park festival in Golden Gate Park (a Labor Day tradition with me and my nutty friends).

When we returned, the wee one was still mewing, and we decided to take her in. After a quick trip to the vet where we got some emergency Milk Replacement formula, we took the little kitten home and began feeding her every four hours...

We named the little kitten "Noe", after Noe Valley, where I live. "Noe" is, apparently, the Spanish word for "Noah", as in He of the Ark, and it is also the name of one Señor Noe who was an early mayor of Yerba Buena (San Francisco, before it was San Francisco). Finally, it is the street I used to live on in Noe Valley (named for Señor Noe). I thought it was a good name for a cute little kitten.

When we found Noe, she was only about five days old and weighed about five ounces. Her eyes had not yet opened, and her little ears were still folded down. She was so tiny!

Here are some pictures of my little Noe as she grows up into a Big Cat...