Sebastian Bock: The Beginning

I have a Siamese fetish. I love them. Anything I love, I tend to collect. Case in point: Three out of my four cats are Siamese. My second favorite kind of cat is the Calico. Two of our four cats are Calicos. Genevieve is my Calico Siamese

My first Siamese, and my original baby in this life, is Sebastian Bock. He's now fifteen years old and I've had him since he was five weeks old. I can't imagine life without him. Anyone who has known me for a long time knows Sebastian. Over the years of spending time with him, he has provided everyone alot of laughs and even a few tears. I've always thought Sebastian would make a great character in a series of children's books, due to his utterly charming personality and his simple and innocent approach to life.

I got Sebastian when I was in college at the Univeristy of Texas at Austin. As I said, he's my original baby but technically he was my second cat. I responded to an ad for a free kitten from some fellow collegiates for my first kitten, Cecilia. I soon felt Cecilia needed a playmate so I went out on a hunt. The best place in Austin at the time was the Austin City Pound/SPCA. I visited all the time and fell in love with a little flame point Siamese kitten. He was in the top row of cages in the "strays" section of the pound. In this section, visitors must "petition" an animal to become adoptable. Of course, Sebastian had more than enough signatures. When you approached the cage, you saw this tiny cross-eyed white kitten with a tiny pink nose and huge orange ears. How adorable!

I got there the first day he was adoptable. 10 am, actually slightly earlier in order to assure I had the first adoption application. There were a couple of other people there early. I went in an announced my intention to adopt the little cutie... and found out I wasn't the only one there for him. Here I was, a college student in jeans and sneakers. The other interested party was a woman in a business suit. The SPCA staff allowed both of us to submit applications. I walked away, crushed. There was no way they would let me have him over the other woman. Established vs. student... no way.

But they called me, and they gave him to me. The woman already had nine cats, I only had one. I was the better home, they felt. I was ELATED! I ran down and picked him, this sweet, cross-eyed baby. As soon as we were in the car, I let him out of his cardboard crate so he wouldn't panic. I had a '69 VW beetle bug at the time, and within minutes the kitten was out of my sight. When I pulled up at the apartments where I lived, I got out and hunked down to pluck the kitten from the floorboards. No kitten.

I panicked. I checked again, both sides: no kitten. I panicked further... this was an old car, the floorboards of the VW Beetles at the time were NOTORIOUS for rusting out and I started to get a sinking feeling my kitten may have found one.

I was ready to cry when I hear a small plaintive "mew." I stopped, listening. "Mew?" "Mew?" I followed the sound, to underneath the driver's seat. There, tangled in the seat coils, was my precious kitten. Cross-eyed and hopelessly stuck. I plucked him out and dropped him in the inside pocket of my leather jacket and carried him safely home.