My feel-good colors are soft browns and blues, and my favorite pet was Pesci the cat. He was an orange tabby with short legs and a long body who was confident he could fit all of his 22 pounds into small boxes. He not only sprawled across my workspace but took up the entire desk, daring me to tug an important piece of paper out from under him. If my opinion was that there wasn’t room on my lap when I was knitting, he would sit next to me patiently until I let go of a knitting needle to adjust my work. Then he would grab the needle in his teeth, pull it out and run away. He delighted in my panic to protect the loose loops from unraveling while I scrambled to retrieve my knitting needle. He was affectionate and funny, with a mismatched personality and appearance.