Column: Cats and the joy of 'medicine'

Even before I met a cat, my mom told me I was allergic.

While I had plenty of dogs growing up, I didn't know much about cats, and whenever I saw one, it freaked me out because I just didn't understand them.

Years later, while living on a Reservation in Washington state, I noticed a little kitten wandering outside my house. I instantly started to worry about the kitten. Nervousness about a cat or being allergic was not part of my thought process; I just wanted to give the kitten a safe place to grow up. There were a lot of stray dogs running around in my neighborhood, and it gave me an uneasy f...