Freya was born sometime in April 2003 and joined our family on June 28, 2003. She's a funny Siamese-mix cat who would like everyone to believe that she doesn't know the meaning of the word "no." As I hadn't had a kitten since early childhood and The Husband had never had one, it was quite an experience trying to learn to live with one, especially one with the rambunctiousness of a Siamese.

Her markings were a pretty classic seal point and she has very light blue eyes. She was very small when we got her, only eight or nine weeks old and not much bigger than Trey, but she grew a lot, both in height and especially weight. She finally got nearly as big as Salem, and rather thick and stocky, not to mention fat. Her fur also darkened as she got older, leaving her body nearly as dark as her points. I like to tease her saying that her fur is as dark as her soul.

This little bundle of energy seems to be anywhere and everywhere at once, and much of the time, she's doing something requring lots of movement. She constantly chases and carries around her mice, runs into walls face-first, and steals shiny garbage which she then minces around with in her mouth. Whether it's something she's doing or just a strange position she's sleeping in, she makes us laugh all the time.

Like a feline version of Jekyll and Hyde, she's got her opposite side, the epitome of sweetness. There's nothing quite like having a bundle of fur come curl up on your lap and purr loudly enough to vibrate her own body, all on her own, to make your heart melt. She loves to cuddle with me and often follows me from room to room. Of course, she's got such a short attention span at the moment that one moment she could be meowing with joy at getting to see me, and the next she'll be dashing off to play with one of her many mice.

Having a Siamese heritage, Freya is very demanding and very vocal. Her voice, amusingly enough, is noticably lower than Salem and countless decibels louder. Unfortunately for her, her demands for attention led her to pounce and bite on our feet at night when we were trying to sleep, leading to her being shut up in the office every night for quite some time. Fortunately, she figured this out or just mellowed enough that it isn't a problem for the most part, and now she sleeps with us and Salem every night on our bed.

Freya, continues to get into more mischief and it sometimes seems like she's constantly stealing stuff from the garbage cans and elsewhere. She is very smart and does things such as pull the tail on her hedgehog to make it vibrate, hide in a box and jump out to scare Salem, and she even opened the freezer one night! She loves to knock over my water glasses and has ruined a keyboard and a clicker or two, forcing me to finally switch to using water bottels and sippy cups to keep hydrated. She also did the deed of letting Indiana the corn snake loose, something my husband has forgiven neither me nor her for. As obnoxious as she is, I love her more than ever. She reminds me of a snippet of a poem I remember from somewhere: "When she was good, she was very very good, and when she was naughty, she was horrid."

As much as we like to complain about her, to be honest, she has mellowed somewhat now that she's nearly four. Or perhaps she's simply worn us down. She still steals and knocks things over and has to sit in anything that resembles a box, no matter how small it is. She also has to be the first to eat and gobbles food down fast enough that she often hurls it right back up. On the other hand, she has become more and more affectionate. She used to be very particular about her personal space, particularly with her face, but now gleefully rubs her cheeks against ours. She also is very insistent that we must be clean, and often will lick people quite thoroughtly, especially men with hairy legs. She's the cat that makes it clear to people that we do have them, because while Salem usually runs and hides when we have visitors, Freya plops herself into the middle of everything and insists on getting attention, whether the guest likes cats or not.