It hit me the other night.  While she's masked in cats clothing, Persia has
got to be my RB mutt dog, Sampson.

I should have seen it from the start.  She's protective of me, as he always
was.  She growls if she hears a strange noise, sounding much like a panther
in the wild.  Scared the crap out of me the first time I heard her do that!

She sleeps where my dog used to sleep, curled up next to my side.  But she
also treats me like her mom in cat-behavior: kneading and gently nipping at
me.  Dog behavior included licking my hand until I can't stand it anymore!
She does that (sandpaper tongue).

She sits on a pillow in my computer room next to my chair just like my dog
did.  She follows me around, constantly.  She's on the toilet seat when I'm
taking a bath.  Sampson used to love to get bathed; he'd sit outside the tub
and whine.  Persia walks along the rim of the tub if I take a shower and
meows at me like she wants to get in.  (I have not been brave enough to pull
her into the shower.)

She begs for people food (which she rarely gets; neither did he).  She
doesn't jump on counters or tables; she just knows not to do that.  She
doesn't like potato chips but likes cheese crackers.  Just like Sampson did.

My dog of nearly 18 years died in 1999.  In 2001, this cat came yowling at
my back door *insisting* she be let inside.  The vet guessed she was 2-3
years old then.  I'm thinking 2.  Because she came to me when I was so sad,
missing my dog, and he'd been gone 2 years.  She stepped in at just the
right moment and filled a void.  Now I find myself laughing over cat antics
and thinking, "You are my dog, aren't you?"

Jill