Saturday morning my friend Bob and I sent out on a journey far to the east, traversing foggy, rainy highways, great bodies of water, perilous mountains, and arid lands.... all the way to Ellensburg. The object of this daring adventure was the aquisition of the most precious of household companions... the KITTEN!

We started out early in the morning for the 9:40 ferry to Seattle where we acquired Andrew and food from Safeway to keep us alive on the long road ahead. Such delicacies as "Fruit by the Foot", kettle chips, power bars, other such snacks, and one caeser salad were purchased and consumed over the course of our journey, which we would discover later would barely sustain our strength. The road was long, but we girded our strength and forged onwards. Our goal was not one to be abandoned lightly.

We flew along the express lanes heading for I-90 to get out of Seattle when we ran into our first obstacle - Traffic! After sharing the express lanes with only our shadow, our progress came to a screeching halt as we found ourselves entangled in the dreaded Traffic Jam. Andrew bemoaned his ill advised instructions to take the express lanes as we watched cars passing freely on the freeways to either side of us. We turned on the radio in the hopes that we might be enlightened as to the cause of this situation. We eventually heard that it was a car fire that had caused the nightmare, and our thirst for knowledge thus sated, we proceeded to sit and twiddle our thumbs for what seemed like an eternity, realizing that our newly acquired information would really do us no good. Finally moving again, we passed the burned out shell of what had been a car - windows shattered, tires melted, the frame blackened - and with a quick statement of hope that the occupants of the car were uninjured and gratitude that it wasn't our car, we continued.

We quickly realized that the route we were taking was not going to get us to I-90 and the next leg of our journey, so we took the next exit and made a stop at a gas station. The car was hungry and unprepared to carry us to our destination far to the east without a good meal, so I filled the beast with gasoline as Andrew ventured into the station to ask for directions to I-90, proving once again that the statement "men never ask for directions" is false (a fact which never ceases to amaze me). In short order we were back on the road, and headed towards that long strip of asphalt that would take us to our destination.

We didn't stop again until we reached the tiny town of Cle Elum. This was a perilous stop, as we were deep in the sparsely populated eastern lands, and had sighted pickup trucks and men wearing orange camoflage who would quite likely turn on us if they happened to see the "Frodo Failed, Bush Has The Ring" bumper sticker on my car. It was a tiny town, but we stopped at the Safeway for a much needed (some might say desperately needed) trip to the restroom, and went next door to a cafe where Bob, the valiant driver of my car, purchased coffee in an attempt to maintain his flagging energy. Andrew purchased a chai, and someone must have seen the bumper sticker because they tried to poison him - the chai was overwhelmingly sweet.

On the road again (safely away from both men in orange camoflage and vindictive baristas), and it wasn't long before we reached Ellensburg. We navigated our way through roads with names such as "Uptanum" and "Manastash", passing 90 acre farms with huge fields of various vegetation and livestock. We turned down one wrong driveway and were stared down by a vicious bull with burning red eyes surrounded by his harem of meek cows before we were on the right track again. Finally we reached our destination - a small yellow and brown house with a large brown barn behind it. We were welcomed by the sight of the friendly elderly cat breeder holding the precious orange and white bundle of fur we had come to acquire.

Barbara offered us refreshments and invitied us to sit down, taking pity on our obviously weary selves, faced with the fact that we were only halfway finished with our trip. After allowing us to sit and talk for a bit, she introduced us to all of her lovely cats. On the way to visit the cats in the barn there was an alarming cloud of wasps that we were forced to walk by, but the wasps took mercy on us after our long journey an allowed us to pass unmolested. The cats were Siberians and Norwegians. Orange, black, seal point, torbies... all beautiful, all friendly. After much fawning over the cats, Barbara sent us on our way with the tiny kitten and a bag of apples from her apple trees.

The ride home was uneventful. The kitten was named "Stella" (if you ask me, I'll tell you she was named after a character from Anne Rice's "The Witching Hour" and if you ask Bob and Andrew, they'll tell you she was named after the beer Stella Artois). Stella slept through much of the return journey and caused no trouble. Valiant Bob, drained of energy at last, turned the wheel over to Andrew and had a well earned nap. I sat in the back with my new kitten and read my book, and the hours flew past. Finally, I took the wheel while on the ferry, and got us the rest of the way home.

Ah, home at last. After such a grueling journey it was like heaven. The kitten, Stella, was turned loose, and unafraid, she proceeded to thoroughly explore everything. She is affectionate, friendly, and adventurous. Playful, energetic, and sleepy. She's wonderful. Our journey was more than worth it. ^_^