I take a quick water break, then move away from the barre and create a center tendu combination. Then I look for a song and get started.

One day as Rose and I are playing in our room, I hear Mom screech from the kitchen. I run in to see what happened to find her in the corner, panicked.

"What's wrong, Mama?" I ask.

"Stay out of the kitchen! I just saw a mouse. Go get your daddy."

I run to find my dad and tell him what happened. He rushes into the kitchen where Mom is hysterical.

"Where is it now?"

"It just ran into the broom closet!"

He opens the door to look, and it scurries out and disappears into the room Rose and I share.

"Oh no!" I shout with my little six year old voice.

Mom looks at me confused and says, "No, unless you have mice sized stairs that it can climb."

I heave a relieved sigh, rush over to the small Dora the Explorer themed dollhouse by the door, and remove the stairs from their position, setting them in the upstairs portion.

I found out later that it was the other dollhouse the mouse hid in, but I didn't really care about that one so it was fine with me.

By this time both of our parents have left the room and are discussing the matter in the kitchen. Mom come back in a few minutes and asks us if we want a kitten. Of course, being three and six years old, we absolutely wanted a kitten. Mom says she had to talk to the landlady about it first, but that she'll work on it.

The next time the landlady, I think her name is Ms. Debbie, comes over Mom brings up the mouse incident and asks if we can get a cat for pest control.

"Absolutely!" Ms. Debbie says, turning to look at our overjoyed expressions. She and Mom talk a little more about other things before she leaves.

Mom wastes no time and starts looking for a kitten right away. She shows us a few listings on a local shelter website, and there's one kitten named Sugar that I fall in love with.

We go to the shelter the next day to adopt her, only to find out that she's already been adopted. We look around a little more at some other kittens, but there aren't any that stand out to us. I'm heartbroken that we didn't get Sugar, so I remain silent as Mom thanks the lady at the front desk and lead us to the car to try another shelter. However, this one didn't have any kittens at all so we just go home unsuccessful.

Mom keeps looking for a week and a half before we find someone who has just put a listing up saying she's giving away kittens. She contacts the lady and soon we pick out our kitten from the photos sent over Facebook Messenger.

Mom keeps in contact with the lady with our new kitten over the next couple of weeks, showing us photos nearly every day. A name for our new kitten is also a constant conversation in the household. We go through almost every name imaginable and some that aren't (thanks to Rose), and finally settle on Daisy.

After a few weeks, she's old enough for us to adopt her! It takes a few days, but eventually she's dropped off at our house and we spend the next couple of hours watching her explore and get used to her new home.

Caring for Daisy and watching her grow became my new obsession, except for cleaning her litter box, of course. I doubt anyone likes that part. I adored coming home from ballet to her cuddles. I played with her and pet her every chance I got, and even times I was supposed to be busy (Sorry Mom). I even dressed her up in my favorite stuffed bunny's clothes, just because I could. She looked so adorable in the dresses I put her in.