I could see some movement, but it was dark so I wasn't sure. Could that really be Goober the Hamster? Maybe it's a mouse or something. I finally sat up and carefully reached to touch the thing on our bed--I didn't want to be bit--and it was indeed Goober. How did she get here? I don't think she was running in her ball last night, so we didn't forget to put her back in the cage. Had she really gotten out? And had she really made it all the way to our bed?

Pinball always wants to be the center of attention. This picture was taken over a year ago when I was taking Anatomy and Physiology at Tunxis, but on a regular basis Pinball must stand on a textbook I'm reading, sleep right up against me when I'm using the laptop on the couch, and be involved with art projects like posters. I was reminded of this picture this morning when Pinball plopped down on a pile of magazines and looked at me as if to say, "Pet me you silly woman!" She is such a ham. Do you have a cat like this?

When we first started playing with the laser pointer for her, she was downright scared by it. She would shake and jump and eventually scamper off whenever it would touch her. I think she realized that she could see this thing, but never actually touch or feel it.

Anyway, here's a short video of Pinball chasing the laser pointer around: Pinball and the Laser Pointer. It's a 44-second MPEG-1 file.

Pinball is just over two years old now. She's not as wild and crazy as she used to be, but she still lives up to her name. Of course lately she has been most active about four in the morning when we want to sleep. She doesn't seem to appreciate it when I try to share the same exuberance when she is sleeping.

Anyway, I don't think that I usually photgraph well, but I like this picture Dan took of us.

For the past few weeks, Pinball has been sleeping in the office chair a lot.

We always tell her to move or we'll sit on her, but it doesn't do any good--we sit on her and she's still content to stay asleep! In fact, it's often a battle to be the first into the chair. For example, if I'm sitting in the chair doing something and stand for a moment, she'll often jump into the chair and lay down quick!

I was getting the photos off of Sherree's digital camera and saw a number of photos of Pinball, including this one of her tangled up in some ribbon!

She still gets in as much trouble as the day we brought her home.

• Pinball playing with a straw, 2.4 MB and 28 seconds.
• Pinball gets excited about the laser printer, 2.0 MB and 28 seconds.

The surprise isn't that she has a diary, it's that she can write at all!

On August 2, 2003 Sherree & I adopted a kitten at the Humane Society. We named her Pinball. We don't know when she was born, but she was about nine weeks old when we adopted her. E-mail her at pinball@danandsherree.com.

Many photos of Pinball are available, as are a few short videos. Look at the Pinball the Cat category for all the posts about Pinball.

We've finally named our kitten: Pinball. Fast Booger was in the running for quite a while, but Pinball won out. I just took this picture of her. She's about 11 weeks old now. We chose the name Pinball because of her high level of activity.

We got a kitten! We adopted her from the Humane Society. She's 9 weeks old and doesn't have a name yet. E-mail me with your suggestions!