The idea's been stewing for a couple of months, until Monday afternoon when Mum, my brother and I went to the local animal shelter and picked out a pretty little female cat with either tortoise-shell or calico markings, not sure which; in Finnish the terms are covered by the same word, the Finnish word for turtle. She was in a smallish raised cage along with the other cats, so I didn't get a really good look at her colours, but what I saw was white, black and brown, maybe something toffee-ish.

We're calling her Suzie, and she was really social and affectionate at the shelter. Probably starved for attention - she'd been there for a month already - so she might be a little bit less affectionate when we get her home, we'll see. First order of the day on Friday afternoon is a trip to the vet to get her vaccinated, and to make an appointment to have her spayed (and microchipped). The shelter doesn't have the resources to get it done themselves, but they do worm their cats right before they go home.

Expect photos in the near future.