It might seem a little excessive to dedicate an entire page of my website to my cats.

I disagree.

My cats have been part of nearly every chapter of my life, through the ups and downs, good and bad, chaos and peace.

More importantly, one little grey cat is the reason Storm Cat has its name at all.

So naturally, they get their own page.

✧ Riku – My Storm Cat (2006–2023)

Riku, much more commonly known as BunBun, was my first cat and the first companion I ever chose for myself.

He came into my life when I was young and stayed beside me for seventeen years through moves, loss, growing up, and some of the hardest chapters of my life. He was grumpy, fiercely loyal, wonderfully strange, and very much my cat.

He was also remarkably good at predicting storms.

There’s plenty of folklore surrounding grey cats and their supposed ability to sense changes in the weather, and Bun seemed determined to uphold the tradition. Whenever a storm was approaching, he would hide in one particular spot. It became so reliable that seeing him there meant we knew bad weather was on its way.

Naturally, we started calling him Storm Boy or Storm Cat whenever the weather turned.

Years later, when I needed an idea for my business, I borrowed his name and likeness.

I lost Bun to lymphoma in 2023. I still miss him terribly, but I love that something I create gets to carry his name.

He’s the original Storm Cat, my eternal muse, and forever part of the team. ♡

You can read more of his story under his tag Riku, or by browsing the general Kitties tag.

✧ Edgar & Maude – The Chaos Kittens (2023 – Present)

After losing my Bun, I was convinced I wasn’t going to get another cat.

That lasted approximately as long as it took me to find a photograph of two tiny rescue kittens sitting together on a purple velvet blanket.

Edgar and Maude had survived a brushfire as newborns. Orphaned and rescued from the aftermath, they were eventually fostered by a mother cat who had recently lost her own litter.

I found them while looking for somewhere to donate Bun’s belongings.

And one thought wouldn’t leave me alone:

“Your home is empty, and they need one.”

So much for not getting another cat… now I have two.

Edgar is my timid ginger boy: cautious, talkative, suspicious of approximately everything, and an absolute puddle of affection once he feels safe.

Maude is his opposite. She’s confident, curious, affectionate, and generally operates under the assumption that everyone she encounters has been waiting specifically to meet her.

They’re siblings, best friends, occasional co-conspirators, and almost always somewhere nearby while I’m working.

They never replaced Bun. They weren’t supposed to.

They simply made the house feel full again.

They were my new beginning: the first small pawprints pointing toward the life I want curate.