Molly

Lisa Kovalovich Whitmore, Senior Beauty Editor
I adopted Molly from the Humane Society in Newark, New Jersey — she’s a kitty from the streets. I was looking to get a friend for my other cat, Olivia. When I walked in, they had a wall of cages and all sorts of cats there. But Molly stuck out because when I walked up to her cage, she stuck her long white arms out of the cage, like she was saying, “Pick me!” So of course I asked to see her, and the first thing she did was lick my nose. I was immediately sold on her and went through all the paperwork and wait time and finally got her. She still is the lickingest cat I have ever met — she licks me all the time.

She is also the current “most improved cat” in my house (my husband and I have three cats total). We made up that award because one of our shy cats started being more friendly. Anyhow, Molly is most improved cat right now because she had a bad habit of using the side of our mattress as a scratching post, but I recently bought a real scratching post and (using a Real Simple tip I read in one of our articles) set it next to the bed where she would scratch the mattress. Now she never scratches the bed — she only uses the post.

She likes to sit in bags and boxes, like other cats. I once hung a big straw tote on a doorknob in our apartment, and later that day I couldn’t find Molly. Somehow she had gotten herself into the bag and was hanging there in it on the doorknob.

She also meditates. She’ll sit quietly looking at the wall for long stretches and gets this Zen look on her face.