Anyone who knows me knows what a big cat lover I am. I'm frequently told I'm one kitten short of becoming a crazy cat lady although when I had five of them I think I was the crazy cat lady.

So when I say Happy National Cat Day, I mean it but to be honest cat day is every day around here. My little 14-year-old Junior is my soul cat... the love of my life. She is sweet and affectionate and devoted in a way that astounds me. Considering she wandered over here in August 2000 and after one meal decided to stay the next 14 years and beyond, I feel pretty lucky to have her.

She actually was an outdoor cat for 11 years... don't worry, this is Los Angeles, she had a her own house with a heated bed, flea medication, vet care, love, and two wet meals a day to supplement her always available dry food. But Junior was always something special, even if it did take me six months to be able to pet the little feral cat. Typo was my big boy cat (not really very big) and he was as black as Junior so Junior liked him. In fact, I didn't know Junior was a girl and she was named Junior because she looked so much like Typo's son so I named the cat Junior for Typo Jr. And by the time we found out she was a girl, Junior's name had stuck. Junior used to get really close to Typo when he went into the back yard and I was finally able to start petting Junior when she was snuggled against him. Then she learned to like the touch of the hand.

When Snickers, the last of my indoor cats, passed away, I finally had space available for Junior and so Junior moved in. What's funny about her is that even though she slept by herself for 11 years she sleeps in the bed and wants to spoon. I really had to condition myself to sleep with her because she also sleeps on my face in the winter. Graystripes, my first cat, used to sleep on the pillow above my head; Typo would leave and sleep under the bed as soon as the light went off; Snickers might sleep on the end of the bed. But no one but Junior actually wants that much body contact all night. So it was an adjustment, needless to say.

But that cat makes me so happy.

That said, she doesn't allow pictures taken of her. Oh, no pictures, please! Junior and I cuddled up for a nap the other afternoon (I had gotten up at 4 a.m. for an early morning shoot at the beach, so don't judge on the nap, lol) and I just happened to have my iPhone handy and snapped this picture of my beloved. You might be able to see she has a tipped ear... the vet's clinic did that when she was spayed as a feral... who knew she'd stay? And the other ear has a nick when she got in a fight once. She's tiny, barely eats her wet food but still loves dry, and has a kind of compact body that makes her look wider than she really is. My spouse calls her misshapen but I call her beautiful. That's my Junior.

As much as I love having pets and more than one, I want Junior to be the only one for now. The others have all passed away, sadly, so Junior is all I have right now. And to give her peace in her retirement years, I don't want her to stress out over another animal. So it's just Junior. She deserves it.

Happy Cat Day! I will enjoy my little Juney-June all day, every day!