Pets, Part 2

.....Continued

I didn't have any more pets until I had graduated and left home. I lived in an apartment and a friend of mine had a new batch of kittens. Well, she didn't have them, her cat did. The mama cat was black and two of the kittens were a Siamese mix. Did you know that black cats were of Siamese descent? I took one and another friend took the other. For a few nights I had both of them, oh what fun! Kittens climbing curtains and running all over the place. I named mine Lucifer and she was as wild as her name. I guess I really didn't like the name after awhile so I changed it to Zig Zag. Partly because she was still wild and crazy and also because that's the brand of papers I used to roll my doobies, ha. Seriously!

My Roomie, 1981

Once when she was in her wild stage my parents were in a bad auto accident. My dad was in the hospital and my mom was home with broken ribs. I took the wild one with me back home to stay awhile. That crazy cat was crawling all over the shelving and my poor mom was up more than she was resting to take care of that damn cat.

When she got older and started to mellow I then called her Mama Kitty because she had a few litters of kittens by then, and was a great mom. I kept one of her kittens, a Torti and I called her Blender. Because the colors were all blended, get it? Blender had a twin and my younger brother took her and named her Zing. Probably a drug reference too, ha. He was a nomad and she traveled everywhere with him; just a dude and his cat. By then I had met my husband so he had an instant family of cats.

One Happy Family

Blender had one litter and was so clueless as a mom that her and Mama Kitty kept stealing the babies back and forth. They all finally settled in box to raise the kids. We kept one of the litter, a beautiful boy, all black with one tip of white on his tail. We named him Gatto (Italian for cat). When he got to be about one, he wanted nothing more than to get out and find a woman. I was so annoyed with his persistence that I put him out in the rain. He never came home, got hit by a car a few blocks away. I felt guilty for a long time after that.

I'm not peeking Mom, I swear!

 Mother and Daughter cat hated each other but we loved them both and moved them with us a couple of times. They were both around when we had our daughter although she doesn't remember Blender because we had to have her put down when she was 18 and we were buying our first house. She had become very thin and had a tumor on her abdomen, probably cancerous. She stopped using her box although I tried several different things to make it easier for her. We couldn't move into our new home with a cat that couldn't use her box so we put her down. It was a horrible decision and it took place on the same day we had to make a counter offer on the house. We had a mobile Vet come out and do it because it was less traumatic and then he took her with him because we had no place to bury her. I felt very guilty about that for a long time, she had been such a good kitty and we couldn't even do her the honor of burying her at our new home, as it would have been at least 30 days before we could move in.

When our daughter was about 5, poor Mama Kitty was getting older (21) and not much of a playmate. She had suffered a stroke several years earlier and we thought she was a goner. But she rallied and had several more good years. But now she was probably half blind and deaf and spent her days sleeping. That's when we decided to go 'look' at dogs. Not going to buy one, mind you, just 'look'. By the end of the day 'looking', we brought Nellie home. We brought her into the bedroom where Mama Kitty was and tried to introduce them. Mama Kitty jumped out of my husband's arms, ran downstairs and that's where she lived out the rest of her days. Six months she lived in the basement, under a bed. I felt horrible! I tried to make her living space as comfortable as possible by moving her food and box down there too. She never even tried to come upstairs again. We would go down and visit her, lie on the bed and cuddle, but we knew it was just a matter of time.

One day I noticed that she couldn't find her box and would just walk around in circles in the bedroom. We called the same mobile Vet and he came over, the day before Thanksgiving. We had a nice baby blanket and put it on the couch in the family room. He first gave her a sedative and I think she was already gone by then. But he followed through with the injection and it was over. Twenty One and-a-half years of a life of a Devil cat turned to a sweet Mama. I had her for half of my life at the time she died. We laid her on the blanket, took a picture and spent some time with her before it was time for a proper burial.

Behind a fence in our backyard it was a little hard for hubby to dig a hole in frozen dirt but he did and we put Mama Kitty in a pretty box with 2 of my daughter's toys to keep her company. Behind that same fence we also have my step-son's cat and several pet birds.

My first real home ♥

Nellie was my first dog as an adult. I've written about her a lot so won't go into much detail. She's gone through her stages of accidents, digging, eating bushes, jumping, and general doggy mischief and adventures. She's also been the best dog I could ever imagine. We take her ever where we can, even if it's just a trip to the store. If she hears keys, she's up. One to two walks a day keeps us all in shape.

Nellie is now 11 (and on Facebook, big showoff!) and when it's time for her to go, we have a nice little jar that we can put her ashes in so she can stay with us forever. I will never abandon another animal.

So, that's the history of my pets, some sad memories but more happy. They bring such a richness to your life that when Nellie goes we might be in search of another cat. An older cat, like me, who will be content with a warm bed, food and many scratches under the chin.