My kitty.

John and I had only been married a little over a year. We'd just gotten home from somewhere and I heard a tiny little sound. I realized it was a cat somewhere and followed the crying. As I neared a big hedge full of thorns I saw a little gray puff peeking out at the bottom. I reached for it, but a big truck roared past and the fluff disappeared into the hedge. I knocked at the door of the hedge's house and the lady there said the kitten had been crying all day and night the previous day. I realized that if it had been that long, the mother wasn't coming back for it. We hadn't seen any other kittens around. We called my mom's neighbor, who rescues animals. Hours were spent crouched around that villainous hedge, meowing, kitty-kitty-kitty-ing, and reaching into thorns. John donned leather gloves and we pulled out our secret weapon: the can of stinky wet kitten food. We knew the little mite hadn't eaten for a while. He could only resist so long. He crept toward the food several times, head bobbing as kitten-heads do, but always scampered back when we reached in. It was getting late. Towards 11 pm, the kitten was laying down and closing its eyes. The woman helping us suddenly got very urgent, telling us we needed to get it out of there as soon as possible. He was giving up. John started yelling the word "meow" at it so it couldn't go to sleep. (And if looks could kill, that cat would've made me a young widow.) It decided to pull itself over to the food one more time. John struck into the hedge with reckless abandon and extracted a flailing little gray fiend. We closed him into a cat carrier. It sounded like we'd thrown some firecrackers in and closed the door. (A bit feral, eh?) Well, my mom's neighbor took him to her place for the night and helped him eat and taught him ... about kitty litter and so on. We made our eyes as big as possible, welling with tears, and asked our landlord if we could keep it. (How many flashbacks to fatherhood he must have had.) He said yes. Our kitten was only about 4 weeks old. He started getting sick and we realized he hadn't had anything to drink. John stuck his finger in the water and let a drop fall onto the sluggish baby's nose, causing him to shiver and lick the drop off his nose. This process was repeated a few times and then Johnny gently dipped the little nose into the water dish. Thankfully, the kitty made the connection and lapped up the water gratefully. We had to put canned wet kitten food in a dish mixed with a little water and microwave it just a little so it was warm. Then he could lick it up. He still licks up the pieces of his dry food before chewing. (It's frickin' adorable!) We debated for days about a name. People names, stupid names, degrading names. After the Felix, Muffin, Dusty fiasco, we landed on the one that stuck. Miles. Miles Prower, to be exact (in honor of Tails, from Sonic the Hedgehog). It fit him perfectly. He has a lot of dignity, even if his rear is in the air. And if he could talk, we have a feeling it'd come out British.
Well, now it's almost 4 years later. He does have a little belly (in his defense, all fixed kitties have one) and he is awesome. He has turned off a lightswitch by himself, turned on the fan and laid down in the breeze, and mimics the way we talk. (John always calls out, "Honey?" when he's looking for me. Miles soon started doing a little "pirrup" in the same tones when he wants me. He also pulls my hair when I sleep too long.) And we've gotten to that disgusting point where we refer to ourselves as our cat's mama and daddy. But, he's no ordinary cat. When I'm sick he sits on the bed staring at me worriedly. When I'm having a nightmare, he always comes and sits on my pillow by my face. He licks my forehead when I have a fever. And he trips me frequently as I go down the hall -- seriously, he sticks his paw between my feet as I walk.
We're a weird little family. But, we always feel "the cozy" feeling when the three of us are together. He cares about us and we take care of him. Sounds like family to me.

Clarification: None of the above cutie kitties are our Miley, but he looks just like that. Thank you lolcats.com.