Trivia

Character

More 2015 garbage! Catalina is usually a very warm and loving cat, but can have her moments. She is sometimes unpredictable in her actions and is suspected of being bipolar. She is very protective of her family, and will stop at nothing to avenge them. Catalina can act stupid and make incorrect assumption about things, much to other cats' annoyance. Because of this, she comes off as uneducated when she is actually quite intelligent.

History

I try to not relate any of my Nekotalia characters to the canon characters, but with Catalina, that's really difficult, considering Florida's history with Spain, France, England, and America. :V Also I'm pretty sure I got most of this from Wikipedia and I wrote it like three years ago, save for the Space Race stuff...

Before Statehood: When she was first found by Spain in April, 1513, he named her Florida (meaning "Flowery Land" in Spanish). For much of her childhood, Spain ignored her because he was only interested in looking for gold and the mythical Fountain of Youth, but she was able to forgive him for this because she loved the name he gave her. In her later childhood, Spain finally started paying attention to her and introduced her to various old world things including the Spanish language. In 1559, she met France for the first time in Pensacola. He hung out around there for a while before mysteriously leaving (she believes Spain drove him out). In her preteen years, she was constantly being kidnapped by England and France, but Spain always managed to get her back. In order to protect her from these two, Spain gave her the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas as gifts. In 1763, Spain handed her over to England in exchange for Cuba. During the time she was under the rule of England, she became pretty close to Georgia and South Carolina. England introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo, and fruits as well as the export of lumber to her, and under him, she became much more wealthy than she ever was under Spain. During the American Revolution, she was a devout Loyalist and hated anyone who went against England. As such, she did not send a representative to sign the Declaration of Independence. In 1783, Spain came and took her back after England was defeated by America. During this time, she rarely saw Spain, as she was too busy leading Native American attacks against America. She would also constantly raid Georgia's settlements and offered a haven for runaway slaves. Tired of these raids, in 1817-1818, America started a war against her, who was now the leader of the Seminole Tribe. Meanwhile, she was becoming a burden to Spain, who could no longer financially support her. He ended up gaving her up to America through the Adams-Onís Treaty, which took effect in 1821. She really didn't like America at first, remembering what he did to England, and rallied behind her Natives to fight him. This caused America to initiate the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Seminoles, however, were becoming an increasing threat and with the Treaty of Payne's Landing, they left her and went somewhere else.

Statehood:On March 3, 1845, she became the 27th State to join the United States. America didn't really like her and she was submitted as a "slave state". By the 1860s, she was introduced to cotten farming. In January 1861, she declared her secession from the Union and became a founder of the Confederate States, yet during the Civil War, the other Confederate States received very little help from her. The only battles she fought in were the Battle of Olustee on February 20, 1864, and the Battle of Natural Bridge on March 6, 1865, both of which were Confederate victories. After the Civil War, she rejoined the United States on June 25, 1868. In the 20th-century, she turned to tourism as a way to earn money instead of her former farming, although she's still big in the citrus and fruit market. However, devastating hurricanes in the late 1920s and the Great Depression brought this period to a halt. She didn't fully recover until the military buildup for World War II. During the Cold War (specifically during the USSR/USA "Space Race") was when Catalina met her husband, Antonio, now a retired NASA engineer, with him being where NASA's mission control was, and her being where the rockets actually launched. Becoming the "Space Coast", the two showed incredible teamwork, and before long, feelings of love blossomed between them. They married at the end of the Cold War and went on to have three children. They're now the proud grandparents to sixteen grandshildren, and with a few greats too. Toni and Cat are now happily retired together, letting their kids and grandkids run things for the most part.