Man who Speaks Cat Gets Married

I met A.J., Chris's cousin, shortly after Chris and I started dating. I met Jeff, A.J.'s female cat, the first time Chris took me to his Aunt's house. I remember A.J. was holding Jeff real close to his face and ignoring everyone else in the room. I must have been staring, because A.J. turned to me and said in a very serious tone, with a very serious face, "I speak cat." Then he turned back to Jeff. Naturally, this is the point at which I thought, "this man is never going to get married."

The first time I had a real conversation with A.J. was on the way to the grocery store. I was driving and A.J. was my passenger. Somehow we started talking about marriage. I asked A.J. if he ever wanted to get married. Without hesitation, he chuckled a little and then candidly replied, "Yeah, of course I want to get married someday." His response surprised me. After all, up to this point he was the male counterpart to the cat lady.

Over the next seven years I got to know A.J. I learned that he does not in fact speak telepathically to cats. I learned that A.J. and I have a few things in common: Neither of us like like yellow starbursts or skittles and we both love cheese. I also learned that A.J. does not like it when people refer to Jeff as a he, even though we all know it just doesn't sound right to refer to a cat as "Jeff" and "she" in the same sentence.

I am happy to report that A.J. got married last week, thus fully dispelling my first impression of him and fulfilling our first conversation. I laughed during the wedding ceremony when Lindy, A.J.'s bride, vowed to accept A.J. and Jeff because I remembered thinking that Jeff would be the reason A.J. would never get married.

So, Congrats A.J. & Lindy! I pray all the best for you two...or should I say three?