That picture is too sweet for words - they're the same size!
I'm like October; I didn't discover cats until much later.
As a child, I had a friend who had 2 cats, a Siamese and a brown tabby. But I discovered I was allergic to them, and they weren't particularly friendly, so I wasn't particularly interested in getting to know them.
At 16, I stayed with a family in France who had a very friendly, but mostly outdoor cat. I don't think I ever even touched him.
In my late 20s, a friend left her cat with me for a few days. I couldn't let him in my bedroom because of my allergies. Every night when I closed the door, he'd run full tilt down the hallway and bodyslam the door, then howl to be let in. And yet...somehow, when she came and picked him up, the apartment felt empty. So I took care of him a couple of other times.
In my early 30s, I took care of another friend's supremely ornery cat for a few days. He hissed, wanted nothing to do with me, scratched and drew blood, and killed my ficus tree (I woke up one night to a strange noise, opened my eyes and saw the top of my tree shaking. He shook all the leaves off the tree). And yet, once again, my apartment seemed so empty when he was gone.
So I finally got my own cat, at the age of 35.
