Lord Vader, Conquerer of Hearts....

Who could resist the name "Vader" for a huge, fluffy black cat?! He was chosen from a litter a coworker of my son's ex-girlfriend had brought to work one day. My son had been wanting a black kitten for quite some time and upon seeing him, a little but also huge black ball of fur, she couldn't resist.

Vader is truly a member of the family of cats who produce the double layer of fur you see in cats from the coldest regions of the world. He has a super thick undercoating of fur to keep him warm in winter, as well as the long bits of fur on the bottom of his feet to protect his delicate paws not only for protection from the bitter cold, but also hot sands as well.

His name was pretty simple to conjure up due to the ever popular Star Wars movies in that the super villain's persona was an evil and menacing flavor of black and struck terror in the hearts of all. Our Vader is the exact opposite...he's a huge cat, and a big baby at about 13-14 pounds (he looks like he'd weigh in at 25 pounds though), bright yellow eyes that seem to stay half closed all the time and a meow that's barely heard, except when he's dragging his toy (a back scratcher with a long string tied to the end of it)in for my son to throw for him to fetch and return dragging it between his legs, and talking at the same time! The other important thing about his name is that the building where my son's girlfriend worked, was a big black one of all things, was called the "Vader Building"!

I'll write about my pure white cat a bit later...his name is Sweety and serves as my nickname with Uber since my son set the account up in the email containing his name. Plus I used to write in yahoo's Answer column to answer questions about cats...my by-line was 'Sweety says..." He and Vader are inseparable, but definitely know which one of us belongs to whom!