I hope it would be ok to write about some kitty friends here Twila -
I'm not trying to change the topic but as you remind me of someone who also loved cats...I'd like to tell a story about her if I may - the Sunday paper had her house up for sale today and I was thinking about her...
She was a retired nurse, a widow lady who had been married to a doctor and she lived next door to me in a condo development I was in for the past two years. I met her because I broke my dumb arm when I was moving in and she would not let me take out my garbage, get my mail, or anything else which regular humans do...talk about a natural caregiver!!! She had three of the largest male cats I have ever seen. In fact once when I knocked at her door and she asked me to come in...I couldn't find her...just three large furry lumps were settled on her until she moved her head and there she was...snuggled in a blanket on her lap with those three magillas.... they were all purring and I could hear them from the entrance hall...
She had been trying to trap a Calico who like clockwork would come into season and eat the goodies my friend would leave on the patio... hoping to catch the feral momma and get her spayed. She finally was able to two years ago after momma had brought two little Calicos home to feed with her..
My friend took in the two babies but could not catch the mother who ran off.... now she had five cats..and those two Calicos were (like most Callies) as loco as firecrackers.... leaping off walls... climbing on furniture, driving the three old 'settled males' up the wall too. It was a hoot to watch em! The three huge males were mortified but enjoyed the show!
Then my friend got cancer....and as she became more and more ill from the chemo and the disease which was unrelenting.... her life was taken up with chemo and cats.... and the cats gave her life meaning as she came home each weekday from her treatments to cuddle up with her furry friends...
My dear friend who I did not have a chance to know any longer than two years, ( it was a lifetime of knowing such a beautiful creature as she was )...finally died... and her three daughters actually kept her house in the family with a grandson living there....until the cats were adopted out..... their mother would have been so proud they treated her best friends so well....
My friend had earned a pilot's license as a young girl, played violin in the Chicago Symphony orchestra when she was in college studying to become a nurse, and after she retired had been active in the wild animal compound for the area....as well as taking people on hiking and birding tours...she had the most fulfilled life.... but her cats were literally her life up until the end....
I miss her and I miss her five beautiful companions..... and I hear the two Calicos have settled down and become more 'refined'...which means they don't bounce off walls any more.
My last time with her was the day I became a citizen...she walked very slowly to my house...frail and weighing about 90 lbs.... to bring me a tiny flag to hold when I was sworn in. She had to go for chemo that day and missed the ceremony....I would have given anything to have shared it with her...