Animal Owned
About seven months into our marriage we got Sam and Dee. I had always had an orange tabby and, although we had Loki and Aradia, they were black. I longed for another orange tabby. One day my mother called and said there was an ad in the paper for two kittens, rescued from McClouth Steel and they were required to go together. I talked to Charlie then called the woman and talked to her for over an hour. She told us we could have the babies. Jack LOVED to go for car rides, so we took him with us. He had to wait in the car, but he didn't mind. When we came out with the carrier with the two kittens he could hardly contain himself. He would look in the box, wag his tail furiously, then look at us. "There's KITTEHS in the box!!! You got me more kittehs!!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!" He was already hopelessly in love with Aradia and enjoyed playing with her. He thought she was his (in fact, he often picked her up and carried her around, effectively "sliming" the kitten with dog drool), and that these new kittens were a present***. Aradia, Jack, Sam and Dee played for hours on end...racing through the house and destroying nearly everything in their wake. WE were pleased they all got along so well.
In 2002 we found Riley. He was small, scared, cold and hungry abandoned on a very busy street in a tourist town. When we brought him home he was so happy and excited to see other cats. The first two he saw were Asp and Queen sleeping on the bed together. He RAN to them and it was like watching a toddler run up and hung a big person's legs. THEY were not so happy...at first. Within 24 hours they had decided we had got them a kitten. They coddled him and raised him. Until he came unglued over Bunny's death, Riley belonged to the other cats, NOT us. He wanted nothing to do with us, just them. When Riley was at the vets, it was Asp I took to stay with him to try to draw him back. Asp had not seen Riley in a month (that's how long he had been at the clinic) but as soon as he saw him, he ran to him and kissed his head. He had his kitten back.
In 2004 Aradia went missing. We put posters up EVERYWHERE. We called all the clinics and shelters. We walked Jack through the streets calling and looking. She was a gone for a month. We were, by that point, sure we would never see her again...and then one day she trotted up the drive. She was FAT, for the first and only time in her life, so they must have given her food she really liked and a lot of it. BUT, she came home. She escaped where she was and came home. I had seen her over and over throughout the house before that, a doppelganger because she wanted to be HERE, with HER people and HER dog.
A year later, when Sam was dying (we were fighting, FIGHTING to save him) we contacted a pet psychic we had used in the past. During the reading she had to excuse herself because of her dogs. When she came back she apologized to Sam and me and explained individually to us WHY she had to momentarily stop the reading--her dogs were being food hounds. I laughed when she told me because Jack was a beagle and a Consummate Food Hound. What she told me next floored me. SAM was amused. What SAM had told her was, "I have a dog, too. He does silly things like that sometimes, too." I did not have a FaceBook or a blog at that time. I had never mentioned Jack to her. This was her fourth reading for us and all the others had been CATS. There was NO way she could have known there was a dog here...unless Sam told her.
"I have a dog."
WOW.
Because I KNEW Jack thought HE had cats.
It has changed my perspective forever.
When we got Woody he was sick and injured. He needed to be quarantined. Kitty, who was FelV+ was already living in the bathroom. We moved him into the spare room where our pigeon, Lou, lived. We HOPED he wouldn't bother the bird. Our fears were unwarranted. They became the best of friends. When I opened her cage to feed her or clean it, Kitty often hopped inside and laid down with her. I REALLY wish I had been able to get a picture of that, but he didn't do it EVERY time and I didn't want to leave them alone. When he was living on his own he would bring me dead birds as a thank you for feeding him, I didn't want instinct to perhaps override...
When Kitty died it was in my arms, in that room, with Lou screaming. When I saw him I knew all I could do was hold him, that we would NOT make the vet clinic. It happened very fast. SHE was devastated. She attacked me every time I opened the cage for MONTHS, like she thought I had killed her cat.
In our arrogance as "humans" we THINK that we pick our pets and that they belong to us. The TRUTH is that They Pick Us just as much as We Pick Them. WE "belong" to them, are owned by them, as much as we THINK they are owned by us...maybe even more.
***ARADIA thought they were HER kittens. We had only recently gotten her spayed and she wanted a baby AND a toy/playmate.
ETA:
I MUST add Miss Bisby to this story. Bisby was a foundling kitten my sister and I conspired to bring home. She loved my sister and me, but she was REALLY my Brother's Cat...or he was her boy. When he was 18 he enlisted. Rodger was gone for two years overseas. When he came home the cat immediately glued herself to him. Bisby was Terrified of strangers. She Remembered him, Who he was...despite all that time...HER boy had returned.
The sadder side of my brother leaving is The Bomber. He had an iguana that he had raised from a baby. She was about 6-feet long when he left. He couldn't take her, but had her get a full physical before he left. We took care of her, played with her, petted her (she would press up against your hand, just like a cat), fed her...but she just DIED. She had lost her person, and it was more than she could bear.
In 2002 we found Riley. He was small, scared, cold and hungry abandoned on a very busy street in a tourist town. When we brought him home he was so happy and excited to see other cats. The first two he saw were Asp and Queen sleeping on the bed together. He RAN to them and it was like watching a toddler run up and hung a big person's legs. THEY were not so happy...at first. Within 24 hours they had decided we had got them a kitten. They coddled him and raised him. Until he came unglued over Bunny's death, Riley belonged to the other cats, NOT us. He wanted nothing to do with us, just them. When Riley was at the vets, it was Asp I took to stay with him to try to draw him back. Asp had not seen Riley in a month (that's how long he had been at the clinic) but as soon as he saw him, he ran to him and kissed his head. He had his kitten back.
In 2004 Aradia went missing. We put posters up EVERYWHERE. We called all the clinics and shelters. We walked Jack through the streets calling and looking. She was a gone for a month. We were, by that point, sure we would never see her again...and then one day she trotted up the drive. She was FAT, for the first and only time in her life, so they must have given her food she really liked and a lot of it. BUT, she came home. She escaped where she was and came home. I had seen her over and over throughout the house before that, a doppelganger because she wanted to be HERE, with HER people and HER dog.
A year later, when Sam was dying (we were fighting, FIGHTING to save him) we contacted a pet psychic we had used in the past. During the reading she had to excuse herself because of her dogs. When she came back she apologized to Sam and me and explained individually to us WHY she had to momentarily stop the reading--her dogs were being food hounds. I laughed when she told me because Jack was a beagle and a Consummate Food Hound. What she told me next floored me. SAM was amused. What SAM had told her was, "I have a dog, too. He does silly things like that sometimes, too." I did not have a FaceBook or a blog at that time. I had never mentioned Jack to her. This was her fourth reading for us and all the others had been CATS. There was NO way she could have known there was a dog here...unless Sam told her.
"I have a dog."
WOW.
Because I KNEW Jack thought HE had cats.
It has changed my perspective forever.
When we got Woody he was sick and injured. He needed to be quarantined. Kitty, who was FelV+ was already living in the bathroom. We moved him into the spare room where our pigeon, Lou, lived. We HOPED he wouldn't bother the bird. Our fears were unwarranted. They became the best of friends. When I opened her cage to feed her or clean it, Kitty often hopped inside and laid down with her. I REALLY wish I had been able to get a picture of that, but he didn't do it EVERY time and I didn't want to leave them alone. When he was living on his own he would bring me dead birds as a thank you for feeding him, I didn't want instinct to perhaps override...
When Kitty died it was in my arms, in that room, with Lou screaming. When I saw him I knew all I could do was hold him, that we would NOT make the vet clinic. It happened very fast. SHE was devastated. She attacked me every time I opened the cage for MONTHS, like she thought I had killed her cat.
In our arrogance as "humans" we THINK that we pick our pets and that they belong to us. The TRUTH is that They Pick Us just as much as We Pick Them. WE "belong" to them, are owned by them, as much as we THINK they are owned by us...maybe even more.
***ARADIA thought they were HER kittens. We had only recently gotten her spayed and she wanted a baby AND a toy/playmate.
ETA:
I MUST add Miss Bisby to this story. Bisby was a foundling kitten my sister and I conspired to bring home. She loved my sister and me, but she was REALLY my Brother's Cat...or he was her boy. When he was 18 he enlisted. Rodger was gone for two years overseas. When he came home the cat immediately glued herself to him. Bisby was Terrified of strangers. She Remembered him, Who he was...despite all that time...HER boy had returned.
The sadder side of my brother leaving is The Bomber. He had an iguana that he had raised from a baby. She was about 6-feet long when he left. He couldn't take her, but had her get a full physical before he left. We took care of her, played with her, petted her (she would press up against your hand, just like a cat), fed her...but she just DIED. She had lost her person, and it was more than she could bear.