"Splash Park" in Manhattan

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Helper Kitty?

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A Little Awwww moment.....

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Our New Kitty, Gracie

I couldn't stand it any longer.  I missed having a little furball to curl up with, so.....   Meet Gracie!

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Memorial Video I Made

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"Missing" Miss Kitty

Someone else is really missing Miss Kitty, too.  Allison drew this picture last evening while she was in her group room with her fellow dancers between performances.

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1st Ballgame

Allison had her first coach pitch softball game Thursday evening. This was definitely new for us.  She has had about three practices so far, I believe, and Bruce had been taking her, so I really didn't know what to expect.  She did very, very well.  She actually got hits on both of her at-bats, so I think that is pretty awesome for the first game in the first year of playing softball where the ball is pitched to you versus being on a Tee, which is what she has played for the past, what....4 years I guess.   There is a lot of standing around ... on purpose...basically because they are still learning how to hit a ball, so there are a lot of misses!  I think I heard someone say that they get 7 pitches and then they are out if they haven't hit, but it sure seemed like a lot more pitches to the first batters.  There is beginning fielding going on too, but the girls basically are just to try to field it and throw it to first base...many were also throwing it to the coach/pitcher, so maybe that is desired too...I don't know.  Some weeks we will actually have games on two evenings a week...so thus it begins! :)

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Allison's Dance Recital

The dance recital is very late this year. Normally it is Mother's Day Weekend with the Flea Market that is in town.  Denise, the instructor, moved it this year to this week, the weekend of the Big Blue BBQ, Car Show, etc etc etc., here in Marysville, as well as the Days of '49 parade and carnival at Hanover. There is  a lot going on.  Folks were not very happy, in general, as to the move of weekends, so we will see when the recital is next year.

Allison does so well. I am so proud of her. I don't know where she got her dance ability from, but I'm so glad to see it :).

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It's so hard

I thought today might be a little easier. It was...at least during the day. I had to work at the library most of the day preparing for the summer reading program which starts next week. I was busy and had little time to think of other things. After being at the library, I had to get things together and get Allison ready for her dance recital tonight (more on that in the next post).

Tonight, after everyone has gone to bed is a very different story.  I'm just so sad.  I miss Miss Kitty so much.  I don't know if anyone else can really understand my strong emotions with this. I've had many cats over the years.  I've said good bye to many cats over the years, some I really had hated saying good bye to, and I was genuinely sad.

This is different. I feel that a really important friend has been taken from me before I was ready. I knew she was getting old and I knew the day would come. But...I didn't want it to come and I was in denial.

Non-cat people, or even general people may think that I'm being really silly or immature or something.  Sorry...but this is how I feel.  Besides Bruce, Miss Kitty was virtually my first "friend" when I came to Marysville.  She has been beside me as much or more than Bruce has been.  She knew when I needed a friend; she knew when I needed snuggling; she gave me love; she responded to me when I called her name...she would come running; she would 'meow' when you said "Miss Kitty" and could carry on a "conversation" with her.  She listened and loved me without judging me...not many others in this world do that.

When I try to lay down to sleep last night and tonight, it doesn't come for a long time. I need to go back and try again tonight, but I know I will lay there for a long time. I know where my mind will be, and I don't want to think about it again, so here I am. Hoping the next time I go back to bed I will be tired enough I will fall asleep quicker.

I miss my friend terribly....and I just want the whole to fill and not be sad anymore.


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Miss Kitty

Today very possibly was one of the hardest days of my life.  Today I had to make the decision to have my 11-year old fur baby put to sleep.  Over the past week and two days, Miss Kitty's behavior had changed drastically. She was withdrawn, not coming out to socialize, not being seen except for a very short time, not eating, minimal drinking, and losing a large amount of weight.  This formerly somewhat plump, sturdy kitty now had ribs and back bones that could be felt.  She was as light as a feather to pick up.  I called the vet yesterday, and they said it could be many things, but they could run some blood tests to see what might show up.  Dr. Porter pretty much no more than felt around on Miss Kitty's abdomen this morning and said that she could feel a large mass, somewhere along her stomach/spleen, etc. area.  She could do some surgery, but there was no guarantee that would do any good, especially given Miss Kitty's advanced age.  Even after putting her through the stress of an operation, there was no guarantee there was anything that could be done.  We talked for a long time about maybes and what ifs.  I couldn't see Miss Kitty decline any further...what had happened already had happened so fast.  I don't think she was in terrible pain thus far, just felt cruddy or sick, but it seemed inevitable.  For ME, I couldn't imagine making this decision that had to be made, but for Miss Kitty it was truly the only decision.   It's impossible not to cry as I type this note.  I've been terribly teary all day. Everything has some type of memory of this beautiful cat.

Bruce and I had gotten Miss Kitty as a kitten back in July of 2001. She was our first acquisition together, as we got married that following November 2001.  I had just moved to Marysville and Staggenborgs had advertised kittens on Partyline. We went out to their house and there was a cream colored, Siamese marked kitten. She was gorgeous, and I had to have her. She was a great kitten, who got into all sorts of trouble, like hiding behind the cookbooks on the microwave cart, or hiding behind the gas cooking oven, when it was on!!

We were still living in Bruce's little bungalow for the first year of marriage. There was a heat vent in the small bathroom in this little cut out corner, and Miss Kitty loved to curl up there, right in front of it, and take naps.  We found it interesting when we would find a banana all the way from the kitchen to IN the waterbed back in the bathroom with suspicious feline teeth marks, or even a bag of hamburger buns.

Miss Kitty's favorite toy at this time was Mr. Mouse.  Mr. Mouse is long since gone, as it was really just a cheap little cat toy, but she loved Mr. Mouse. She knew Mr. Mouse by name. You could tell her to go get Mr. Mouse, and pretty soon here she would come with Mr. Mouse in her teeth. She would play a game with the mouse all by herself by having the toy on the floor, sitting on it, 'hiding it from herself,' and then acting surprised when she got up to discover the toy underneath her.

It was also while we were still at the old house that we discovered Miss Kitty's "puny" tummy.  She always seemed to have a little trouble with digesting her food.  She threw up more than any other cat I knew. We tried many different types of cat food, finally settling on the expensive Science Diet.  It never did cure, and she always did have some periodic problems.

We got a second kitten while we were at the old house, too.  We got Maddie from the Staggenborgs, too.  Maddie is a gorgeous tiger/tortoise shell cat, who is a half-sister to Miss Kitty.  Maddie and Miss Kitty bonded very well together, but unfortunately Maddie never has bonded with the humans in this household.  Maddie will walk (or run very quickly) a long distance in order to not come close to a human.  Miss Kitty had a pal though.  She became Maddie's second mother, with Maddie even "comfort" nursing Miss Kitty for many years.  While it was kinda weird after a long enough period of time, it was also very sweet to see how close those two cats became, and stayed.

When we moved to the new house, they both made the transition as well as could be expected.  A very big change in all our lives came in 2004 when Allison was born. Miss Kitty did not take kindly to this new addition into the house, taking over "her" bedroom, and coming into "her house".  We had some bathroom issues on a very expensive area rug, and a huge territorial issue in the bedroom closet upstairs when we were cleaning it up before Allison was born.  However, after a short period of time, things soon returned to normal.

Miss Kitty never did really end up bonding very well with Allison.  Allison wasn't necessarily the quietest, calmest toddler in the world.  Plus, like any young child, she went through the learning phase of how we softly, gently pet cats and not hit or pull hair or tail.  Miss Kitty never really did trust Allison, even up to the present time. They had recently been able to call a "truce" and Allison was trying harder to be calm and gentle, but Miss Kitty liked her own space.

Miss Kitty was definitely my cat.  She would almost immediately come out of "hiding" when Allison went to bed, and would jump up on my chest and rub up against my face and lay on my chest for awhile in the evening if I were sitting in a chair.  One of her favorite things to do, which I will miss terribly, is when I would go to bed or even just to lie on the bed or couch, she would jump up on me and lay on me, on my side, on my stomach, on my chest, it wouldn't matter.  And then the "slurping" would begin...she would like to knead my neck with her paws, and clean my chin with her tongue...ending with a  strange but loveable way of just holding her mouth against the bottom of my chin in like a long kiss when she was finished.  We would just lay there, me sometimes not appreciating it at the time as I wish I now would have, thinking "oh, this is weird" when in fact it was probably the highest sign of love and bonding from this very special fe-lion.

I have had many cats over my lifetime, many cats that I loved and were fond of, and enjoyed. I can honestly say, however, that there has never been a cat quite like Miss Kitty before.  She was a very special cat with a very distinct personality that is going to be hard to follow.  I miss her terribly already.  If you are reading this, and you've either never had a pet, or never had a really close bonded relationship with a pet, it is probably hard to understand, but Miss Kitty was not "just" a cat.  She was a friend.  She was as special and close to me as any person in my life.  I have a very sad hole in my life right now.  A hole that tears are flowing from right now.


On a side note,  I had not seen Mr. Whiskers since we returned from our weekend away. I was afraid that he had figured his meal ticket was gone since his food had probably been empty for a couple of days, and he had moved on.  Bruce said that while I was on the phone with him, telling him what was going on, as soon as I said that Miss Kitty was gone, Mr. Whiskers came popping up the driveway, ........coming home........


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