With regards to the cat

I am keeping him.  He gives me kitty snuggles when I get home from work, plays with a laser pointer like nobody's business, and keeps me warm at night (while taking over the bed and sometimes cutting off my airways...we need to work on that one).

For the first two days, I was keeping him locked up in my laundry room while I was out and at night because the lady at the shelter recommended it, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I went to let him out, he had puked.  So I decided not to lock him in that room anymore, as a bit of an experiment (hey, maybe the room stresses him out, right?).  I also slept with him on the couch for the two nights after that because I wasn't ready to let him into my bedroom yet (what if he puked on my bed?  EWWWW!).  Anyway, he even found it in himself to cram up onto the couch with me those nights, and with that he won my heart (sooooooo cute!).  The past week, he's been allowed full reign of my bedroom at night, and has so far always chosen to sleep in my bed with me.  For awhile he was sleeping on my chest, making it hard to breathe.  The past two nights he has gotten better and has slept nuzzled up against my legs.

I think it's safe to say I've never met a friendlier, snugglier cat.  He is very much the opposite of the stereotypical cat that is standoffish and lazy.  He follows me around everywhere, loves to play and snuggle, and greets me at the door when I come home.  Basically, he's a puppy in cat form.

His puking improved DRASTICALLY since I got him here (he puked 5 times in the first 2 days I had him...but in the 9 days since then has only puked twice, and they were both on the same day so I can basically lump those into one incidence).  I don't think he's perfectly healthy yet, but I do think that he will be with time.  Based on my evidence of the laundry room, I believe that stress was a major factor in his unhealthiness, and he has been settling down into a much less stressful environment since living with me.  And also, vets exist.  So.  Things can be done.

All things considered, I am super glad I took him home.  I found a snuggle buddy.  And the way he looks at me with those big green eyes...I'd say he is pretty fond of me too.

This is Boussinesq.  Or if you want, just call him "Boo."  My handsome man in a tuxedo.  

His namesake is a French physicist who did some important work, on turbulence modeling in fluid flow and buoyancy effects, that was very helpful to me throughout grad school.  Also, his shelter name was already "Boo," so it seemed to fit.  Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Valentin_Boussinesq