Order Your Toby T-Shirt Today!

So… this is actually happening. 🙂

I’m laughing as I type this because half of me thinks it’s absurd and the other half thinks it’s awesome. Both halves, though, are laughing.

Why? Because I’m making t-shirts with my cat on them. And people are buying them. I feel like any and all progress I’ve made in convincing people I am not the crazy cat lady has just gone out the window.

How did this happen? Last week, just when the news was hitting its climax of tragedy (nope, not going to talk about any of it here, just setting the scene) and just when I was needing a smile, my cat Toby jumped into my lap and posed for a picture. This picture:

I immediately posted it to my personal Facebook page with the caption, “Toby writes a letter to his congressman.” It got lots of likes and loves and laughs and that made me happy because it’s what people needed right then. But then, my friend Emily said it kind of looked like I was wearing a black t-shirt with Toby on it and she wanted that t-shirt.

Well… with it being summer and with me being between jobs and all, I’ve got some time on my hands. So I cropped out myself and the dog (sorry, Uno) and put Toby on a t-shirt.

And people are ordering them from me. 🙂 And now I’m laughing again because I can’t help but think about us all showing up somewhere together wearing our Toby t-shirts and what a weird, awesome little cult we would be.

Before you choose to dress in Toby apparel, you need to know a little more about him. (After all, is this really a cat you want to endorse?)

Toby and I met in October of 2004 when he showed up at my doorstep hungry. I fed him and he gulped the food down while keeping one eye on me, then ran. The next night, he showed up again. This time, he alternated between gulping the food and enthusiastically rubbing against my legs in thanks. A bite of food, a snuggle. A bite of food, a snuggle. Another bite of food, another snuggle.

We’ve been together ever since, and our routine hasn’t changed much. Toby, who has an extra toe on one of his back feet, loves food and catnip and snuggles. Especially snuggles. Although, I’ve never done it, I’ve often pondered buying one of those baby wrap things so I can carry Toby around the house strapped to my chest. Despite the fact that I realize this is *probably* taking the “love your pet” thing too far, I know Toby would love it. He loves to be held, wants to be in my lap all the time, and often tries to sleep on my face. He purrs almost constantly and sometimes gets so happy that he drools. A LOT.

Besides eating and cuddling, Toby’s interests also include Tweeting, Facebooking, and changing file names on my computer. About a month ago, he embarrassed me by tweeting to two authors I really admire (Sorry, Nova Ren Suma and Ashley Hope Perez! That string of gibberish really was from my cat, I promise!) and last week he sat down on my cell phone and called my mom. (It was cool. I enjoyed talking to her.) I sometimes wonder if he has a secret cat blog somewhere that I don’t know about.

In short, Toby is a pretty cool guy. He believes in peace, love, and catnip. If he really did write a letter to his congressman, that’s all he would ask for. I’ll be proud to wear his adorable face around town.

Order Your Own Toby T-Shirt!

To order your own fabulous Toby t-shirt (or to buy one for a friend), visit my Etsy shop.

Thanks in advance to any of you who decide to put my cat’s face on your clothing. Just think about what a wonderful (and weird) world it would be if everyone wore a Toby shirt. 🙂