Xiao
Tiny tabby,
enormous lore.
Xiao is the cat behind my left-wrist Cat & Toy tattoo: a small striped girl with dark ears, black paw pads, and a toy she carried through the house like a relic.
Her Story
The little one who came back to herself.
Xiao came home in May 2020 and became one of those presences that quietly reorganizes a life. She is small, fluffy, watchful, and somehow always the emotional center of the room.
Before Disco, she used to play with her own tail. After a second cat entered the household, that stopped. The constant was her toy, which she carried around at night while crying out with a sound somewhere between a call and a tiny roar.
When I moved out, Xiao started healing. The tail games returned. The toy kept making its rounds. The tattoo is for that exact version of her: round, soft, alert, recovering, and beloved.
Measurements
- Build
- Tiny, plush, deceptively round
- Markings
- Dark ears, white chin, black paw pads
- Eyes
- Saucer-wide and deeply supervisory
- Signature object
- The green lion toy
- Known range
- Chair throne, bed sprawl, couch takeover
- Healing marker
- Tail play came back
Photos
The Xiao archive.
Chair monarch, bed loaf, toy guardian, mirror inspector, and reluctant but photogenic participant in affection.
Cat & Toy
The tattoo keeps her with the toy.
Ten translated Xiao into fine line and color: the round little tabby, the red bow and string, the toy that stayed constant, and the details that made her recognizably herself.
Open Cat & Toy on the tattoo page