When the moment was right: deciding to get a cat.

So, it happened.

Not completely out of the blue, to be honest. Since I left home sweet home in Brazil to attend college in Lawrence, KS, I always thought of getting myself a pet. For one thing, I have always wanted one, since I was a little kid. That was one of the reasons that brought Belle into my family. It is a shame I was 11 by then and managed somehow to make the gray mini-poodle scared of me for life by playing hunter and trapping her under clothes' baskets.

[parenthesis]
Hm, ok, maybe my past a pet owner doesn't necessary qualifies me as one now, but 11 years have passed since then and I like to think of myself as a grown-up now.
[close parenthesis]

At any rate, I couldn't - and shouldn't - have a pet for a couple of years. First, because college housing wouldn't let me. Then, because student-hourly budget wouldn't let me - not to speak of the lack of time of an undergrad life in which time was consumed by 16 credit hours, 20 hours of work, a very intense social life, and summers and winters spent back home.

So, then, what changed?
Well, many things.
- Social life has worn out - not entirely, but a lot since freshman year.
- Grad school pays better - or at least, better than student-hourly...
- I finally have an apartment to call my own. Or so I like to think. And they allow pets (which was one of the reasons I settled with them to begin with).
- My roommate likes the idea and I know I can trust him to hold on for me on the occasional trip back home. Plus trips back home got shorter and more infrequent as I grew roots here..

And especially:
- I realized how much I really want a cat, how much I am eager to take care of it and spend time with it.

I am not saying I am ready - I am probably not. But I am eager to learn and unwilling to give up. And that, my friends, is ultimately what qualifies me for it.

[Let the search begin...]