Remembrance Sunday

Hi Everybody!  Happy Sunday………

Sammy most generously gave me a day to blog about a few of my past cats as a tribute to the wonderful lives they led and the happiness they brought to me.  I think of all of them from time to time.  Today just seemed like a good day to share them with Sam’s friends.

When I moved away from home and got my first job as a “government girl” (which was THE thing to do back in the late 60’s in Washington, DC) and got my first apartment, the very first item on my list of “things to do” was to adopt a kitten. As soon as I had furniture in my apartment, I adopted a little kitten from a teenager at the local shopping center who had a box of kittens she was giving away. He was a little red and white “tiger” tabby and I named him Tiger (I know….I know…no imagination right??!).

He was so nice to come home to after riding the bus for an hour every day – his little meow and soft fur……something to care for. It didn’t last long though – shortly after I got him, the rules changed in the apartment complex – NO PETS. I was heartbroken. My sister Carol took little Tiger and found him a home. I had hardly gotten to know him

A few years passed, I got married, and I moved to Florida. I adopted two gray tabbies – one named Moose and one named Michael. Sadly I have no photos of them just as I don’t have one of Tiger. I wasn’t “into” cameras at that point in my life! After a few years of bliss my husband and I separated and I moved back to Virginia but couldn’t bring “my boys”…..they stayed in Florida with a very good friend.

Not long after that, my brother and I got an apartment together and I adopted two little kittens from a litter of ferals found in an old townhouse that was being renovated. Ricky and Linda Sue were TOTALLY different personalities from the same litter. Ricky was my first real “ginger boy”…..and he was a great big love bug. Very attached to me – very sweet always. His sister Linda Sue was aloof, imminently unpettable (!) and as far from a lap cat as you can imagine but she was pretty as you can see below.

Wish the top photo of Ricky was more clear -he was more white than ginger…..the bottom photo is his sister Linda Sue

Linda had a terrible personality – biting me all the time – grumpy – refusing to use the litter box although there was no physical illness causing ANY of this…….I finally decided to let some friends who had a farm in the country have Linda – she would be the PERFECT “barn cat”……..she was quite happy there. Meanwhile Ricky grew older and sweeter and sadly developed a number of health problems and after about six months of slow decline, I decided along with my vet that he needed to be allowed eternal peace.

I meanwhile divorced and spent some time on my own……..well not QUITE my own. I got a darling little ginger tabby who I named Charlene (Charli for short!). She had Ricky’s personality – absolutely adorable. Very sweet and loving. She liked to wander the yard and wore a bell on her collar. If I shook a little bell out the door, she heard it and came running. It was our “signal”……….Charli was VERY special. I just adored her.

Sam and Charli would have made a cute couple! They look a LOT alike!

I met my current husband David during this time……and eventually we moved in together but Charli was not happy – she didn’t have the run of the house or neighborhood and was very unhappy. Again my sister came to the rescue and Charli found a new home in the townhouse development where my sister lived at the time. My heart was broken though – it was very hard to give Charli up but she really was miserable living in David’s house.

The day after my father passed away I was sitting on the front steps of our house by myself and a beautiful and very fluffy gray tabby came up and hugged my legs. He pressed his head against my knee – looked at me with his big green eyes, and meowed. That was Eddy……..it turned out Eddy had no home. He’d been abandoned by a military family who had moved away and just left him behind. I still can’t believe that people DO that sort of thing – but Eddy was a very friendly guy who’d found some kind souls in the neighborhood (I found out) who would give him scraps and he just “survived” on his own. Yet he’d come to me – made it known to me that he wanted to be mine – and he was from that day forward. My husband and I both adored him. When we moved out to the country he came along and had three years with us before he passed away.   (hard to see photos – you might be able to “bigify” !)

Eddy was such a sweet boy….I’m so glad he “found” me that day……

Then came Sam! And you know the rest.

Baby Sammy

So, that’s the story of the cats in my life prior to Sammy – – – – Sam is very special boy in many ways and perhaps is the MOST special cat I’ve ever had. He’s very tuned into me. Yes he’s a “Mama’s Boy” – – – so what???!!! Nothing wrong with that!!! He also pulled me out of a huge funk I was in when I no longer felt like continuing with my writing and painting after a serious illness. If not for Sam’s inspiration I wouldn’t have given writing “one last try”. His blog and the childrens books I’ve written are the result of having Sammy in my life.

Now that he’s getting older – just like I am – we’re quite a pair. I hope we have lots more years together. I am sure though that one day when I’m looking back at my life with cats, HE will be “THE ONE” I remember most………my little formerly feral, polydactyl ginger boy with freckles…….

Happy Sunday!

Sam’s Mom Pam

P.S.  My very dear friend Dianna from These Days of Mine joined me today in remembering her previous cat Beezy…..you can CLICK HERE to go visit and hear her recollections.  It’s our “Day to Remember”…… In addition may I add that the idea to do the Remembrance Day was Isobel’s on IsobelandCat – she mentioned a few days ago she was setting aside today to remember her beloved Freddy – she blogged about it HERE.

Seeing Double?

Happy Saturday!  I’m letting Mom take over again just like I SAID I would earlier this week…….Isobel of IsobelandCat suggested that Mom tell a bit about some of her past kitty cats.  Today, Mom’s going to tell you about someone who looks JUST LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi All….thanks for the intro Sam.   Sam and I were going through photos looking for likely Tuesday Teasers for next week and I came across this photo of a sweet and darling cat named Charli who owned me many years ago.

Sam and Charli would have made a cute couple!

Charli was a cat I who was with me through some big changes in my life.   I adopted her from a home where their cat had a bunch of kittens and the owner was looking for homes for them.  A friend and I each adopted one!

They were VERY tiny little things and Charli was the only red tabby and the most active of the bunch so I took her home.  My husband at the time and I weren’t sure if the kitten was male or female (duh!) so we called it Charlie…….soon thereafter we found out SHE was a SHE so we decided to drop the “e” and just leave it Charli – short for Charlene.  This was back in the mid/early 80s. 

We were living in a rented house at the time – the first house we’d lived in vs. apartments so it was also our first YARD.  We also already had two other cats (I’ll tell about them another time) – Ricky and his sister Linda Sue.  Ricky was ALSO a ginger tabby and he and his sister were around five or six years old.  Both of them had always been indoor cats for obvious reasons living in apartments.

Charli would have NOTHING of being inside all the time……she insisted on exploring outside right from the start.  We had a screened door on the kitchen out into the fenced back yard and she’d climb the screen constantly and just hang there sniffing the smells of outdoors.  We decided to let her out in the yard and she loved it.  She stayed in the yard too amazingly enough.  There was one HUGE and very tall tree in the back yard and she decided to climb it one day – quickly – too quickly for us to catch her – and she climbed almost to the top of it and began screaming to get down.  LOUDLY.  She was way up there too!   My husband and I tried to coax her down over about an hour’s time to no avail.  I was scared to death that she’d just let go and fall and she was WAY up this tree……….she figured out that she could come down to a branch but she would come no further.  My husband climbed the tree – which was tough since there were very few branches…………….but he got her, tucked her into his jacket and down she came – still screaming!

 

She was always very adventurous and that got her into trouble once……..we had eventually moved from that house into another house closer to the hospital where I worked.  Charli wore a bell on her collar and we’d formed the habit of my shaking a bell out the door and she’d respond to the sound by coming home from WHEREVER she was.  She ALWAYS did this – for years.   This house had a higher fence than the last but she figured out a way to climb it and go over the fence and explore the neighborhood. 

 

One day I rang the bell and Charlie didn’t come……and didn’t come……and I went out looking for her with my bell.  I walked everywhere and called her……..nothing……….eventually I posted notices on all the phone poles, in the local library, called the local vets and shelters – NOTHING.  Then about a week later a miracle happened!

 

We had a “cat door” in a window in one of the unused bedrooms that Charli used to come and go.  I was watching television one night when all of a sudden there was Charli.  She hopped up on my legs and just stood there like nothing was wrong – staring at me……!!!  She had a minor limp and I’m thinking she’d been injured somehow and COULDN’T come home or someone took her in to care for her and she “escaped” and came home.  Anyway, I was so happy to see her………she was a very loving, happy, creative, funny, sweet girl and when her time to go to the Rainbow Bridge came, I thought life would never be the same. 

 

We always do, don’t we……….think things will never be the same…..but then we find another little soul to take care of that needs US as much as we need THEM.

 

So that’s the story of little Charli………..who looks so much like Sam it’s amazing!!

Pam (thanks Sammy…..you’re a pal for loaning me your blog space!)