The Silver Lining
Sadie Rose is my lovely tortoiseshell/calico female kitty. I found her, along with a bunch of 8 kitties from 2 or 3 different litters, dumped in the road, on my way to return vieos before closing time. I took one look, and said." You're coming with me, girl!" When I drove back through 20 minutes later, the rest of the buch was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that a neighbor, living behind me, and with a horse farm with a huge barn with a training ring, had passed that way shortly after I went through and adopted the whole lot.
Sadie Rose was teensy when I found her. She was all of 8 weeks old, if that much. I took her home, showed her the litter box, gave her food and water, and slept contentedly as she lay snuggled into the curve of my neck and shoulder on my pillow that night and for too many nights since, for me to tally. To say that we bonded is a gross understatement. She's my girl, and I'm her Mom. Pure and simple.
As a kitten, she was one of the most playful and inventive I have ever known. Each week Sadie had a new game she'd invented: Pulling the bathmat off the bathtub bottom to hear the suction cups pop, one week, and playing fetch with a foam rubbeer ball the next. She'd bring me the ball, drop it at my feet, run after it, and bring it back her mouth after I'd thrown it again. We would play like this for 15 minutes or more. In the Spring, she dicovered the garden snake dens throughout my backyard, and would patiently stake them out, watching for movement. Then she'd reach in, grab a snake, and parade around the garden with her trophy, eventually depositing it on the ground underneath my hammock. If she didn't get any action at one den, she'd go onto the next. She had them memorized, and remembered them from year to year.
Sadie has a walk that's typical of her when she's happy. It's a bouncy run, as close as I can describe it. When she's happy, her body language shows it loud and clear.
Trouble is, she's something of a diva. She always seems to suffer when I have a new cat. God knows I miss my Freddy. Slowly, I'm getting used to his absence.
The good news is that Sadie is once again Miss Happy Happy Joy Joy. She's doin' "the walk". She's coming to me for more lovies, and is less clingy when she does so. Her balance is restored.
Freddy is gone, and that can't be changed, but the wonderful consolation is that I have my Sadie Rose back again.
Sadie Rose was teensy when I found her. She was all of 8 weeks old, if that much. I took her home, showed her the litter box, gave her food and water, and slept contentedly as she lay snuggled into the curve of my neck and shoulder on my pillow that night and for too many nights since, for me to tally. To say that we bonded is a gross understatement. She's my girl, and I'm her Mom. Pure and simple.
As a kitten, she was one of the most playful and inventive I have ever known. Each week Sadie had a new game she'd invented: Pulling the bathmat off the bathtub bottom to hear the suction cups pop, one week, and playing fetch with a foam rubbeer ball the next. She'd bring me the ball, drop it at my feet, run after it, and bring it back her mouth after I'd thrown it again. We would play like this for 15 minutes or more. In the Spring, she dicovered the garden snake dens throughout my backyard, and would patiently stake them out, watching for movement. Then she'd reach in, grab a snake, and parade around the garden with her trophy, eventually depositing it on the ground underneath my hammock. If she didn't get any action at one den, she'd go onto the next. She had them memorized, and remembered them from year to year.
Sadie has a walk that's typical of her when she's happy. It's a bouncy run, as close as I can describe it. When she's happy, her body language shows it loud and clear.
Trouble is, she's something of a diva. She always seems to suffer when I have a new cat. God knows I miss my Freddy. Slowly, I'm getting used to his absence.
The good news is that Sadie is once again Miss Happy Happy Joy Joy. She's doin' "the walk". She's coming to me for more lovies, and is less clingy when she does so. Her balance is restored.
Freddy is gone, and that can't be changed, but the wonderful consolation is that I have my Sadie Rose back again.