There is a belief among cat owners that the cat you are meant to love will find you. Many believe that cats have a mysterious power to pick just the right people they want to live with. This is the true story of how a family from Saratoga Springs, New York, USA were selected by a very special cat with an incredible ability to control the weather.

When Catherine Schelsinger and her husband Gabe set out one fine spring morning in 1995 to look at a car they little thought they would be coming back cat owners. Gabe was interested in buying a Ford estate car and they had hired a vehicle to drive out and look at this as it was almost 40 miles away in another town. On the way they stopped for breakfast at a roadside diner, someone had left a local newspaper on the table and Catherine flipped through the classified advertisements, looking for nothing in particular. Halfway down the page, her eyes were caught by a simple box advertisement that said 'Litter of kittens for adoption: First to see will fall in love'. Well Catherine knew that she must go and see these kittens, she had wanted a cat for many years but the apartments they lived in before their recent move were not at all suitable. Now they had a brand new place, had just signed the lease that very week and she wanted a pet to turn it into her home.

On the telephone the lady who had placed the advertisement invited Catherine to drive right over. It was less than three miles from the cafe and Gabe found it with remarkable ease. It was a though they were guided there by an invisible hand. One sight of those kittens was enough to convince Catherine that she just had to have one. But which one would she chose, how could she pick just one, they were all so cuddly and lovely. The advertisement had been right, she had indeed fallen in love. Gabe was standing next to his wife as she stroked and played with the little kittens, they really were cute. 'Which one dear?' he asked, as Catherine picked up first one and then another. As he watched a tiny black one sneaked away from the litter and crept towards him, before he could stop it the little thing had crawled onto his shoe and clawed its way up inside his trouser leg. It took a few minutes to get the cat down and even then it refused to leave Gabe's side. 'Looks like that one has picked you' Catherine said holding another of the kittens in her hand.

Eventually they decided to take two kittens, the one that had climbed up Gabe's leg they called Hannibal and the other Catherine named Ariel. Back at their new apartment the two cats soon turned it into a home, their home. Cathrine is quite certain that Hannibal has special powers that he brings into force when she or Gabe needs help. She noticed this late one Sunday afternoon in November 1995 as she began to feel ill. At first Catherine just felt a little dizzy, then as the day wore on a terrible headache gripped her. The pain-killers she took seemed to have no effect and soon she was really in agony. The worse thing was the very next day Catherine had to drive across the county to her new job, just telephoning in with a headache was not going to impress her boss. She resigned herself to going and was sitting at her desk preparing the notes for the next day when Hannibal the black cat jumped up beside her. Catherine stroked the cat and whispered her troubles to him 'Come on Hannibal, help me, I do feel ill and have to go to work'. As she spoke Catherine swears his eyes began to sparkle with green fire and he gave a spooky 'Miaaoooow' that sent a shiver running down her spine. Then when she looked out of her window to the driveway she saw that it had suddenly begun to snow.

Down came the snow, deeper and deeper until all the roads both in and out of Saratoga Springs were completely blocked. Now Catherine couldn't go to work even if she wanted to. Hannibal sat quietly on the desk staring silently out of the window at the blanket of whiteness, but in his emerald eyes there seemed to be a strange secret hidden, as if he had called for the snow. When Catherine told her husband Gabe about this he nearly fell off his chair laughing. 'Well if he really is a snow-kitten ask him to get it cleared by Wednesday, I've got a very important meeting in New York'. Catherine picked up Hannibal and whispered this into his perky little ear. For a moment the cat seemed to stiffen, as if it were straining towards something. Then his eyes glowed green and a faint half smile seemed to play upon his whiskered mouth.

On Tuesday evening it began to thaw, by Wednesday morning the roads were quite clear. Gabe made his meeting and signed the contract that was so important to him and his increasingly successful business. For a while Gabe put the thoughts of Hannibal and his strange ability to control the snow out of his mind. Perhaps it was just pure coincidence, after all he thought how could a cat have any effect upon the weather. Then, in the March of 1996 it again began to snow. The snow storm seemed certain to close in Saratoga Springs, once again trapping Gabe and preventing him from reaching New York airport where he had to catch a plane to Houston, Texas to meet with certain business executives. This was to be the deal of a lifetime, it had to stop snowing. The weather forecasts said continuous snow storms for the next 24 hours. Then Gabe recalled the incident with last November's snow and, picking Hannibal up he whispered to the jet black cat 'Help me Hannibal, stop it snowing'. With a push the cat jumped free and ran to the front door, Gabe chased after him and opened it, the snow was blowing everywhere. Standing there black as night against the swirling whiteness the little cat looked about to be covered in snowflakes the size of silver dollars. Then the cat gave a faint cry, it wasn't a 'meeoow', more a 'miaaooooow' and as he did so Hannibal looked up at the dark grey sky. Slowly it began to ease a little. The howling wind, which had been sweeping the snow into huge drifts, dropped and incredibly, from behind a big black cloud, the sun broke through.

Gabe was amazed, had Hannibal the cat called out to the snow clouds and ordered them to stop snowing, he was astonished, it couldn't be and yet the snow had certainly stopped. Two hours later he was on his way to the airport. From that day onwards Catherine and Gabe have been certain that their cats are very special creatures indeed. Since they first adopted the two little kittens their lives have changed. Catherine believes that both the cats have some mystical power to bring positive forces into the home that they have made their own. Now, whenever Gabe has a business meeting to attend he sits Hannibal on his knee and asks the cat to help him. It seems to be working, the Schlesinger's are more prosperous than ever and Catherine has never again suffered from headaches. Which is in itself amazing as she had at least one migraine a month before they brought Ariel and Hannibal the snow-kitten to the house that they turned into a home full of joy.