This week, meet Stella Luna, a black tuxedo cat belonging to senior graphic design major Kat Pasko.
Pasko adopted Stella Luna from the Pet Pantry of Lancaster two years ago. According to Pasko, she had been adopted previously with her kittens, but was later returned to the shelter after all of the kittens were sold.
Stella Luna had already been given her name when Pasko adopted her, but Pasko believes it comes from the children’s book of the same name. In the book, a bat learns to live with birds, and Pasko thinks that plot matches her cat’s personality.
“Stella not only loves birds, but hangs upside down all of the time,” she said. “Her name fits her perfectly.”
However, Stella Luna is not the only name she’s called. Pasko has lovingly given her a few nicknames, including “Goobie” and “Gobert Butterson” for when she’s misbehaving.
Stella Luna is a very affectionate cat. According to Pasko, she’s quite talkative and will yell back in response to hearing her name.
“She is super sweet and if you kiss her on the forehead, she will give you a kiss on the forehead back,” Pasko said. “She will follow you around everywhere talking to you and curious of what you’re doing.”
Stella Luna especially loves following Pasko to the kitchen, particularly when there’s seafood around.
“I can’t even open a can of tuna in our house without her teleporting to the kitchen and yelling at me,” Pasko said.
Pasko explained that feeding Stella also involves letting her lick the spoon used to serve the food.
“When we first got her, we would feed her dinner and let her lick the spoon, a special one we got just for her that is shaped like an airplane,” she said. “Now, she won’t eat dinner unless she gets to lick the spoon.”
In addition to seafood, Stella Luna loves playing with anything attached to a string as well as the tiny Squishmallows made for keychains. According to Pasko, Stella loves carrying them around with her and cuddles them during naps.
Her favorite places to lay are her cat tower, a giant beanbag, and the windowsill, meaning she can often be seen from the street. The cat tower has a perch shaped like a bowl, and when she chooses to sit there, Pasko likes to joke that Stella is “a bowl of goobie soup.” Stella Luna also likes to look outside, and will also stand on her hind legs to look out the screen door.
Stella also likes to hide around Pasko’s house.
“I came home after going to the store and couldn’t find her anywhere, Pasko said, describing a particular instance of her cat disappearing. “Cue three and a half hours of me crying and calling her name and making my fiancé come home from work early to help me find her, for us to find her underneath the inside part of the closet in the quads. How she got there I have no idea, but she continues to amaze me with her hiding spots.”
As of this article’s publication, Pasko has just celebrated Stella Luna’s fourth birthday.
