Name of Participant: Catherine “Nepeta” Leijon-Delgado
Age of Participant: 19
Gender of Participant: Female
Field of Study: Sensory Processing Disorder, Anxiety Issues
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

Appearance:
Catherine is rather short, standing at about 5"4 with a slim build. She weights 112 pounds, most of it lean, toned muscle from a passion for parkour and capoeira, both of which she has been practicing for quite a while. Her skin is a warm olive tone with a few dark freckles owing to her mixed Mexican -American heritage and one too many days falling asleep in the sun. Her dark messy hair comes down around her ears with upturned curls at the end. Her face is round with a cute snubby nose. Her lips have an upwards lilt to them that gives her an ever-present grin. Right in the middle of that grin is a very small cleft in the middle marked by a thin white scar; the after effects of a surgical repair for a much larger cleft in her childhood. She has thin eyebrows in a wide arch over her luminous amber eyes which are constantly darting around.

Personality: Catherine Leijon has a boundless optimism that has guided her throughout life. With a keen curiosity and a hare-brained ingenuity, she pushes on when others falter. This internal drive lets her power through challenges, mental and physical. When she gets fixated on something her focus treads the blurry line between determination and obsession. Catherine just loves the feeling of climbing to the top of that old telecommunications spire, finishing a book like Ulysses, or even getting through a car ride with the nauseatingly false fuzzy texture that makes her want to keel over and hurl. Her focus is quite selective, though; she has a bad habit of disregarding things she doesn't consider important, avoiding it until absolutely necessary.

In general, Catherine has a cheerful and at times naïve demeanor. She has a penchant for playfulness as apparent in her predilection for all things cat. Catherine tries her best to lighten the mood when things get grim. One of her goals is to become a veterinarian, inspired by her own formative experiences with the stray cats of her neighborhood and her ability in biology and chemistry. However, her attempts to reach out to people is complicated by a tendency to be blunt and to assume that others share her views, which she diligently struggles to control. She absolutely hates it when she misses the social subtext and when she is forced to give something up. When her temper flares, Catherine can become petty and reckless, losing sight of what angered her in the first place. She secretly fears that, despite all of her progress in dealing with her own condition and other people, she is fundamentally incapable of living up to the "adult" world with all of its complex nuances and judgement.

History: Catherine Leijon was born in Henderson, Nevada to local artist Arne Leijon and radiology technician Maria Elena Delgado. From her youth, Catherine’s father called her “his little kitty” after Catherine took to imitating the mewling of the menagerie of feral cats for which her parents left table scraps which were her first real friends. Cat puns and general kittenishness have been part of Catherine’s identity ever since.Even though Catherine was the result of an unplanned pregnancy, both Arne and Maria were happy to begin a family with their daughter at the center. Aside from a small scar left by an early operated cleft palate, there was little to differentiate the young Catherine from other toddlers aside from her dogged tenacity and drive to explore.

This changed when a five year old Catherine entered kindergarten, she was involved in a series of escalating bully-related incidents which came to a head with Catherine killing a class pet and seriously harming one of her harrassers. After a PT meeting, her parents decided to take Catherine to a pediatric mental health specialist who diagnosed her with Asperger’s syndrome and SPD. She has been attending support groups and occupational therapy for her condition since then. While she has had her low points during this time, Catherine believes that she is growing into a well-adjusted adult. However, after a nervous breakdown near the end of her first year of college, she began to doubt her progress. After consulting with her parents who chanced upon Dr. Jones’s program, Catherine has enrolled herself into the clinical research group.

Her interests are many and varied. She has a great fondness for parkour and capoeira which she picked up as an outlet for personal frustrations and a personal challenge for improving her motor skills. She has been practicing both for over 6 years. She loves traipsing through the world of fiction, particularly the horror and mystery genres and has been caught catnapping in the shade with the PDF of Dreamcatcher or And Then There Were None on her Kindle. She has recently picked up roleplaying and finds it to be intensely liberating. Before her breakdown, she was studying to become a veterinarian because of her high marks in biology and chemistry. She is currently is in a relationship with a Karkat Vantas, a long time high school friend who went on to attend the same college as her and has been one of her strongest supporters during this time.

Other:
Things that trigger Catherine include but are not limited to:
The smell of certain strong perfumes
The texture of latex (especially on balloons)
The color of medium violet red

When in the presence of these triggers or expecting these triggers, Catherine will exhibit anxious behavior. One mannerism which manifests is a ”swipping” of her middle and index fingers in a “cutting” motion. Classically, the closer her proximity the more agitated she will become. Direct sensory exposure to these triggers in this manner will cause an intense distress and a fight-or-flight response from her. Her therapy has reduced and muted these reactions however. When the trigger is presented quickly and immediately, Catherine will go into a state of shock and display seizure symptoms. As such, she regularly carries a “relief bag” on her person filled with object that are soothing to her. Some of these items are: colorless glass marbles, catnip, and a series of soft, melon colored felt cutouts.

I hereby give my consent to be included in Mr. Jones psychological expurriment. I understand that the purrocedures will leave me cut off from efurrything I know and insert me into a new environment. I understand the risks and benefits of the expurriment as well as the time required. I understand that other purrticipants will be involved with close quarters, that there is furry little privacy, and efurry action is used in the research. I understand that the results are confidential until published, but that names and ages may be changed upon request.