The Pouf has a kitty named Miss Betty

Christina Grasso and her kitty Miss Betty by Hannah Ziegler

I have not yet met this wonderful lady but after seeing her aspirational pics on Instagram, having many friends in common and then noticing a cat in her feed - well, that was it.  So here I present Miss Betty and her mom Christina Grasso aka The Pouf. Christina shares her story and home pics of this wonderful rescue Miss Betty:

"Early last year I underwent a lengthy hospitalization for an eating disorder and while there, had weekly visits from therapy dogs. I realized what a comfort it was to have furry friends while going through something really tough, and after much consideration decided I wanted to adopt a kitty when I returned to New York. It was somewhat out of the blue, because I had grown up with standard poodles and never really understood cats or people's affinity for them. Then one day, I kind of just woke up and said, I want a cat. I knew nothing about them - just that they were much more low-maintenance than a poodle and coughed up the occasional hairball.
I really wanted a black cat, because they are creepy and mysterious (and so am I). 

When I got home, I came across a black kitten named Clover at an amazing cat rescue organization called TLC. This Clover character was just a few months old at the time and was in foster care after having been found nestled, and covered in grease, in a car engine on the streets of Newark. When I went to meet her and her foster parents in New Jersey, I was sold. She was this little fur-ball full of boundless energy. I loved that she had a story and some grit to her, and I wound up adopting her the next day. 

I decided to name her Betty (full name is Beatrice Stevie Nicks Liddlepiddles) after my Aunt "Betty" Beatrice who was a nun and my Grandmother, Elizabeth, who also goes by Betty. 

Betty Littlepiddles' new life started out a bit rocky - her first day she hid up inside my couch for hours and I feared that she had somehow fallen out of a closed window or into the toilet; I thought that she was a goner, for sure.
In the days that followed, she started to warm up to her new human and it became clear that she was not just any regular cat. Betty now follows me everywhere, lies next to or on top of me at all times, greets me at the door when I come home and sleeps in the crook of my arm. She's super cuddly and affectionate and isn't one of those cats who disappears all day only to resurface at a whiff of catnip. She travels often and happily on planes. She loves caviar, bonnets, blue cheese martinis, hairties, the occasional cigar and watching Dateline. Like her roommate (that's me), she also enjoys SVU reruns and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album. 

It turns out she is a Norwegian Forest Cat, so she has this beautiful long hair and a big plumy tail and doesn't shed much, which is a plus.
Betty came into my life during a precarious time and has been an unconditional source of love and a constant companion. I have only had her for a year, but I now cannot imagine life without her. And in loving her, I've learned to love myself a little bit more. She's a keeper."