Today marks perhaps the most important day in my personal history, outside of my own birthday and July 12, 2008, a day I hung out with Bob. Yes, on this day in 1981, the world welcomed the kitten who would come to be known far and wide as Stripey Francoise, the Cat With the Most, into its arms—which she promptly squirmed out of, because Stripey Francoise prefers not to be held.
What are the qualities that make Stripey Francoise such an admirable feline? Herewith, I shall enumerate two hands’ worth of them. This list cannot possibly hope to be comprehensive, because her splendor is infinite and diverse; and because, from her current lodgings in Buckingham Palace—where, in a reverse Mr. Belvedere–style maneuver, she relocated after raising our family in Fargo—she continues to delight both the eye and the mind, if not the ear and the nose. But I dawdle. Onward!
