Well here I am again with my dirty chin … or goatee, depending on whom you ask! There are quite a lot of humans around here to ask, too. I am the happy owner of a six-person family and one stepdog. MEEOOWWW!!! More on that later…

Although my name is Oreo, I'm called just about everything but: Kitty, Binya-binya; Fat Boy (I'm not, I just have a small head!); Pookie; the list goes on and on.

My family was found because my mom, a very young lady cat not quite a year old, found herself in the "family way" and living on the street. She adopted a three-person family with three cats already living there. Although these people were obviously cat lovers, they didn't let Mom, Dad and Auntie (also with child) into their house, they fed them all yummy food, so they stuck around.

My cousins were born first, near the end of April. I don't think the family realized I was cooking inside my Mom since she was so young, until the day -- May 5, 1995 -- she showed up looking awfully skinny. Then a frantic search was on to find us kittens.

We were safely tucked away inside the cushion of a lawn chair, but they found us anyway. Turns out it was a good move, into a posh plastic Cabbage Patch playhouse, where all of us kids and Mom and Auntie had much room to cuddle and nurse. But Auntie liked to run out with the boyfriend (also my Dad) so my Mom fed all of us most of the time!

Friends who are now my family used to come visit us kittens even before my eyes opened. You could tell how much they were cat lovers, which is absolutely the best kind of people to own. I was the only black-and-white kitty in a half-dozen orange-and-white ones. That's why the first name they picked out for me was Eclipse-- very sophisticated, don't you think?

They almost went crazy on me and called me Ying-Yang--yikes!! But they went for cute instead and changed their minds to Oreo. Do I look like the famous cookie?

One day it was time for me to move in with my new family, but there was this macho dog, Ralphie. His real name was Frosty, but his man said it was a sissy name and he was a guy dog living with a bachelor, so he ad to have a guy name! Well, turns out I showed him who's boss, and we're good friends now.

Ralphie is a Bichon Frise and eats all my cat crunch whenever he visits, unless the humans put it up high. Then I get to sit on the table or counter to eat, and snicker at Ralphie since he can't get up there. We sure do have some good wrestling matches. But boy do I hate that doggie drool all over me-I need to take a good bath after one of those slobbers!!

The children of this family think I'm Betsy Wetsy, always dressing me up in doll clothes. I tricked them just tonight-I found a hiding place and no one knew where I was and I like it that way.

A cat's gotta have some private time! Oh -- the little one is a motorcycle lover, too, and when I purr she likes to use me for a cycle, so she pretends to sit on me and rev up my engine by using my ears as hand grips! It doesn't really hurt,but it turns off my purr pretty quick!

My favorite beverage is bathtub water, straight from the tap. I've heard that swirling toilet water is the finest delicacy, but the people around here keep the lid closed. I sleep all day and then starting at 9 o'clock, get put to bed three times, and finally put myself to bed, too.

First one to get tired is Elizabeth, who's nine years old. So her mom tucks her in with me, and I'm expected to play the part of stuffed animal, tightly clutched in her arms. When those arms relax, I slip out of them and join Jonathan who's tucked also in by then. We guys are a minority around here. I like to lie on his feet or near his legs so that he can't move at all.

Look out!! Here comes Sara-she's 13, and gives me some treats and crawls under the covers with me. She's a good kid, but it IS usually she and her friends who put on the fashion show of kitty apparel, with me in it!

Whew!! She's dozing off, so I think I can sneak out of her arms and go lie on her mom's feet or legs. It's especially good when I can make her foot fall asleep, or she tries to roll over and I pretend I'm dead asleep (I'm not!!)

Mom says she has a dream about me when I run as fast as I can to jump into the window and watch the birdies. I don't know why these silly humans won't just go out there and get me one of those feather fluffs-I tell them ALL the time, but they just won't.

In the dream the screen is loose, and I go flying out the third floor window and go Splat! on the road, except she wakes up just before the Splat!! Good thing, too, since I have a lot of good years left of my nine lives!! Oh, yawn! All this talking is making me tired; I think I'll go take a catnap!