Cats, Flowers, and a Bunny
Why?
I love my cats. LOVE them. I also love talking about them and I get endless joy from watching them. I certainly don’t think the internet needs more cat pictures or more cat stories (however, LESS cat content is NOT in any way acceptable), but I want to write about my cats, so here we are.
I also lost the most perfect cat in the history of cats about a year ago and lost my bunny a couple of months ago. I’m left with two needy senior cats, a less-than-cuddly quarantine kitty, and a little bit of a complex about losing pets during the month of June. I want to memorialize the fur-babies I’ve lost and document the rescues of the kitties I still have. Along the way, I know I’ll want to share the latest loveliness from the garden, so hence the random flowers thrown in there.
My cat collection started at the ripe old age of 17 after probably 12 years of begging my parents for a cat. I suspect they finally said yes thinking that I wouldn’t actually go out and get a cat, knowing I would be moving away to college only a year later. They definitely underestimated my need for feline companionship. That lovely kitty isn’t featured here, but maybe if I digitize some old photos (from a FILM camera!!), I might write about her. She lived to be nearly 18 years old and finally succumbed to cancer that thankfully took her quickly.
My first cat as an adult was adopted with my husband and was our first child. She was rescued from a city shelter about an hour drive away from our house because that was the only area shelter that had kittens at that time of year. She’s the one who passed away last June. She would have been 16 that fall.
Next came a spoiled cat we “inherited” from my husband’s fancy older cousin/godfather. We don’t know how old he was (or maybe I can’t remember in my old age), but he was well loved and lived in the lap of luxury until he came to us. We loved him, but being newlyweds just starting out, we could only offer him a small apartment and as much attention as he wanted from us. Our perfect cat constantly tried to make friends with him, but he didn’t seem to want to associate with a shelter cat. Or maybe he was just a grumpy old man who wanted to be left alone to mourn his loving caretaker. We had him for about 3 years and scattered his ashes on his first owner’s grave so that they could finally be together again.
Shortly after we said goodbye to our cat cousin, an abandoned litter was found near my husband’s work in a trash pile. Amongst the kittens found were our trouble twins, whom we bottle-fed and who have never thanked us for saving their lives. They continue to demand cuddles and find trouble any place it can fit.
Some time after, friends of ours rescued a bunny that was probably abandoned after this Easter present required more care than expected. He was found on their street and was obviously not a wild bunny. Our friends couldn’t keep him long-term so we agreed to have him disapprove of us for 7.5 years. He passed in early June and I still haven’t had the heart to break down the cardboard cottage I made for him to hide in. He had the run of the living room, where I work, and all his other burrows and boxes have been cleaned up, so it’s much cleaner in here than usual, but also much lonelier. Except, of course when one of the trouble twins comes around to knock down notes, sit on my keyboard, and block my monitors.
So there you have it, another pet blog and some context for my self-indulgence. I’m writing the above in the summer of 2023 and my personal goal is to blog until I’m up-to-date on documenting how each cat (and the bunny) joined our family.
See below for most recent blog posts.
Girly Details 