CATS in the HOUSE

I love cats! They are so independent and yet so loving at the same time.

Anybody who says a dog is man's best friend never made friends with a cat!

I have had many cats over the years...perhaps through my blog I can extoll the virtues of each and every one!

I think the one I loved and will miss the most was my baby Pester.

He was a gray cat with tabby undermarkings but the gray was almost blue (like a Russian Blue-which I have always wanted) AND he was FAT but NOT unhealthy!

He always had time to chase birds or squirrels. But, he also ALWAYS had time to cuddle!

He was a great comfort to me.

You see the way he came to me was weird. I don't always need to find meaning in everything but I do believe there is meaning behind everything and I'm sure there was a meaningful reason for him to come to me. Maybe it is just what I tell myself too but, I see no harm in it...it gets me through!

It was the day before halloween. I heard a pitiful meowing outside the house and couldn't see the kitten that was making it. When I look back at it I believe that day was the first snowfall of the season and he was a small baby kitten...I think they threw him out hoping he would die.

Something or someone-I don't really know which-led him to me.

Anyway, I looked for him a bunch of times that day and had no luck. Then my son and daughter came home from school and he said he could see the kitten under the deck. He climbed under to get him out and brought the kitty that became my baby to me. He was a tiny bug-eyed little thing and so terrified!

I brought him in the house and because I already had a cat-another FAT cat-who was very territorial I put the kitten in the cat carrier. I fed him and gave him a drink and then sent the kids around the neighbourhood to see if anyone was missing him. I also called the shelter to see if anyone had claimed him and told them if no one ever called it was fine I would keep him...because by then I was head over heels in love with the little pest. LOL

Needless to say the original FAT CAT was NOT impressed! There are many stories to tell about the two of them and how they became buds...but those are for another topic!!

The part about my baby Pester that is weird came later and was realized in retrospect. Being halloween of course it was the last week of October when he came to us and we were expecting a baby of our own. I was only two months pregnant then but very excited and looking forward to a baby to share with my husband of two years. The two children I already had were from a previous relationship.

The thing is I didn't really NEED another cat. The one I had was a perfectly beautiful cuddler all on his own. I just feel that someone or something led Pester to me because we needed each other.

It wasn't the first time I had any weirdness with a cat because a few years previously my father had passed away leaving me feeling sad and lost in the world so a couple of months afterwards I went to the pet store...just to look...and wound up buying an adorable, feisty ginger tabby. I named him Hero...but that is also another topic!!

The reason this is weird is because I have a strange liking for solid coloured cats or maybe tortoise-shells or maybe siamese markings but I don't like tabby's, and especially ginger tabby's. (Looking back on that I think perhaps it may have to do with my first experience with the death of a pet. My cat named Cindy got hit by a car when I was very young...maybe 4 or 5...and I think that you can guess-YES, she was a ginger tabby!) So...I ordinarily would not have bought a ginger tabby but HE was a dear comfort and friend through one of the hardest things I've had to go through. I STILL miss my dad...very much but, Hero is long since gone and I think by the time he left I was pretty much on even ground again...my hubby came not too long after that!

The point, which I have digressed from is that Pester came two months before THE hardest thing I have ever had to experience and that is the loss of our first baby. I was 4 1/2 months pregnant, we had just heard his heart beat the week before and then gone for our first ultrasound only to find that sometime in that week the baby had died.

Oh the sorrow. Another topic for another day.

Pestie, my little fuzzbucket kept me from going insane. He was there through all the guilt, anger, sorrow, pain. AND he was there through the decision to try again, and all the fear and stress and worry about the new baby from start to finish. There was barely enough room for him to fit on the bed next to me every night when we got close to the end and my belly got so big but, he still cuddled and loved me and gave me whatever comfort he could.

AND truth be told, my Pester could sometimes be a little snarky...something that concerned me about the arrival of our new little life but, he also loved my baby...just as much as we did...remind me to tell the story about baby's first bath! From the day the baby came home until the month my Pester died (4 years) he NEVER laid a claw to Gibby ONCE. He was fully aware that mommy would not be impressed and my opinion mattered to him.

That is the personality that gets me! They are independent and don't need you and never want you to be aware of it for sure (most of em anyway) but they DO need you just as much as you need them. What's more I believe they understand what you need sometimes more than you do yourself.

At any rate, I survived a horrible sadness because I had a fuzzy kitty to give me comfort.

Wherever and whomever he came from!

I LOVE CATS!!