Potluck 5/1: Our faithful friends

[KG MacGregor]

I had a playful Potluck planned for today, but my heart was broken earlier this week when I had to put my 17-yr-old cat down. Since then I've been thinking about him a lot, and trying to remember, not the sad moments, but the ones that made me laugh and bubble over with love.

One of the peculiar things about Smokey was that he danced. He had a favorite toy, a string with two small fuzzy balls -- yeah, he was probably mourning the loss of his own.  Each night at bedtime he would fetch this toy and start to march and twirl in place. Smoke rarely meowed, but when he began to dance, he always sang along.



It feels good to remember that about him, and so I'm asking you all to share funny, heartwarming memories of your own pets, along with photos if you have them. No more tears, please!

For every member on this list who posts a story that makes me go "Awwwwww," I'll donate $1 to my local Humane Society in memory of all our pets. Thanks for playing.

KG

[drbubu]

KG I'm sorry for your loss... I know how it feels when you lose a (pet ) friend

so, let me introduce you my small 3 years old dog "Süti" in english "Cookie"... we don't have funny or heartwarming moments together at all... she simply hates me...when I talk to her she turns her back to me...she always puts her toys under my foot...throws up into my shoes...tears up my paper handkerchiefs into small pieces...stuff like that

[KG MacGregor]

That's definitely worth a buck because it made me laugh.

KG

[AnnM]

Hi KG,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Reading your story I had to think about our family rabbit Vlekkie (Spots). Although I don't have a digital photo he looked somewhat like this He was originally an outside and caged rabbit who lived together with his brother. On a clear summerday when my parents where away. These two rabbits for some reason didn't like each other anymore and got in a huge fight. Fur was flying all over the place. Vlekkie was the victim, at the end of the fight a little bit of his tail was bitten off. My little brother and I where deeply moved and put a band-aid on his tail.

Later that day when mom came home and listened to our stories about how Vlekkie got his band-aid. She decided that those two rabbits couldn't live in the same cage anymore and Vlekkie became the house rabbit.

During the years indoor the house plants always where a nibbled to a certain height. Fruit and electrical cables weren't safe. He had created his own place under a bookcase to sleep at night.

My most favourite memory is that at 10 pm each night he came to sit next to my mom or jumped on the couch and waited until she put three little pieces of cheese on the coffeetable for him.    

Years later he died of old age.


Ann

[Towanda]

KG,

I'm very sorry to hear about Smokey's loss 

Although I love pets, specially dogs, I don't have any (yet)
I will be glad to read all the stories about everybody's.

Carmen

[Lyn]

Could you give me quick lesson in how to post a photo KG?  17 is a good age for a feline for sure I am glad you had so many years of fun together!  Lyn

[Lyn]

My St Pat's day pups were 6 weeks old this past Tuesday and enjoyed the Daffodil flower bed.  Their names are Patrick and Meghan. 
Lyn

[Lyn]

Hey I figured it out on my own so forgive my getting carried away here...  Nothing is more fun then young puppies trying to do cute things. 



Lyn

[KG MacGregor]

Thanks, AnnM, Carmen & Lyn. We're up to $3.

KG

[Robbi McCoy]

KG, I'm very sorry to hear about your Smokey.

This is kind of a long story.  Sorry about that. I had a cat named Crumb for 18 years.  She was tan and white and mean and temperamental, but she was also very affectionate and loyal. She was my companion for longer than any human has been.  When she died, I was devastated, like I'm sure KG is now.  It was very hard.  I went for a while without a pet, but eventually decided to get another cat.  I purposely picked one that looked very different.  She was mostly black instead of mostly white.  She was about a year old and had been abandoned by people who moved and left her behind with a litter of 3 kittens.  I named her Imelda after Imelda Marcos because she loved shoes.  She sticks her paws and her face in them and rolls on them and hugs them.  To this day, if there is a pair of shoes on the floor, she'll be in them.  I have since decided she just likes smelly things, but at the time I didn't know that. Imelda, also known as I-Me because of her unpretentious focus on herself, gradually came around to trusting me, but it was obvious that she had not had a great life so far.  It got worse, though. 

She had a life-threatening auto-immune disease that began to manifest itself a few months after I got her.   By the time I got the diagnosis of feline stomatitis, we had bonded and Imelda was turning out to be a wonderful pet.  She was happy and funny and gentle and incredibly obedient.  We spent the next two years in and out of the vet's office, on and off of antibiotics, doing various procedures to keep her alive and reasonably healthy, but a lot of the time she had an infected mouth and would cry when she tried to eat, which was so sad.  It was also eventually going to damage her vital organs irreparably, so I was considering having her put down. 

We ended up getting a new young vet by chance and he offered to do a full-mouth tooth extraction, suggesting that it could be a permanent cure.  We did it.  It worked.  After all of her trials, her shaky start, and a long period of pain and sickness, Imelda never stopped being cheerful, trusting, and loving.  I was so worried that the trauma of losing her teeth and all of the discomfort associated with the operation would change her sunny, trusting disposition. Five years later, she is a healthy cat with no ill effects from either the illness or the operation.  Her face is slightly thinner without teeth, but not so much that anyone other than a mother would notice. I wouldn't have chosen Imelda if I had known ahead of time what was in store, but I'm happy with the way things turned out. She makes a good foil for me, the optimistic little toothless companion with her paws in my shoes.

[Miss Chris]

  KG, I LOVE this potluck.

As some of you know, I just lost my Olivia a month ago. But I'm taking this time to remember all the wonderful times I had with her.

One thing that I loved to do with Olivia is stargaze. Everynight, I make a cup of hot chocolate or hot tea and go outside to watch the stars. Or, if the stars are not out, I watch the clouds float over the moon. Well, since no one watches with me, Olivia would always hop up in the swing with me, and just lay her head in my lap. Or, if I laid in the grass she'd lay right beside me and imitate me. Olivia was the best dog I've ever had, and I miss her so much. But, a special friend of mine has really helped me this past week to not think about her being gone, but to remember the times we shared. (thanks for being there)   

[Isis]

A toast to Smokey for having been such a good companion.  May he get to dance as much or more in his next life.

Isis

[Mylin]

I love cats.  Unfortunately, I haven't had a pet since I was a teenager.  So I don't have any new stories to tell, but perhaps I can share an old story with the group about how I got my first pets.

When I was about 7 or 8, my sister and I saw this cat, hanging around outside our house for a few days.  Our mom was hoping that it would go away, but we were determined to catch it and tame it. Unfortunately, the cat would never let us get near her...that is until we had the brilliant idea to lure her with some cheese.

Of course she was too timid to come take the cheese from our hands, so we had to leave it on the ground and step FAAAAAAR away before she would come eat it.  Knowing that we were on the right track, my sister and I started sneaking food out of the kitchen to feed her.  We had to sneak food because we knew we couldn’t ask mom to feed the cat she was hoping would go away... So as stealthily as ninjas we sneaked cheese, slices of ham, and whatever pieces from our dinner we could hid in our napkins...until one day CHA CHING...the cat took the food from our hands and let us touch her. 

Little did we know that she had just given birth to kittens and that's why she was hanging around our house.  After she grew to trust us, she brought her kittens closer to the house and then there was NOOOOO way we could hide that from our mother.  After all, it's kinda hard to hide the sound of kittens mewling and don’t talk about when they started to get adventuresome and climbed into mom's plant pots and broke her plants...

My mom, (bless her heart) grumble though she did, told us stop sneaking food and started buying cat food.  Mama Gato (which is what we called her) and her 4 kittens stuck around, becoming my first pets.

To this day, the biggest mystery, is how my mom knew we were sneaking food ..I swear to you...my sis and I were like ninjas. 

[katsarecool]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. Pets are our family and it does hurt so much to lose them.

While rearranging the bookcases; two large volumes fell on my foot. The pain was bad. I have exaggerated pain response because I have lived with chronic pain for several years so it really hurt.

All three cats came rushing into the foyer where I was lying down sobbing. Midnight the oldest of the bunch made several passes around my body, to see where all that sound was coming from; his eyes were wide-opened with anxiety. Frankie (the youngest at the time) stood in front of me peering intently into my eyes; he and I are particularly close and he is in tune to the pain and he looked so sad that his mommy was hurting. Ashley (a mix hymilayan), a timid foo-foo cat looked like she was going faint; her eyes do spasmy/jerky movements when she is nervous. She didn't know what to do so she leaned forward and gently bit the tip of my nose.

Chico, the newest member if the household is an 8 month old red and white tabby, he is adorable and so brave. He loves jumping around the house landing with a loud thud on all four paws. Sometimes that doesn't work out for him so well, especially if he is jumping from a high place. When I go to the bathroom, he follows me no matter what time it is. The litter boxes are in there so when I pee Chico pees. His newest trick is to stand on the speaker which is very tall and right next to the front door. He reaches over to part the curtains so he can see out the window. When I leave home I look back and there he is framed by the window pane looking depressed.

I love cats can ya'll tell. I have five but really only four. The 5th one Lilly a Muchkin cat needs a good home, she is about 10 months and so tiny, barely a foot long from nose to tail and her legs are only 2 or three inches long. Lilly is a rescue; after watching two families on my street take her in and a short time later put her out so I took her. She cannot get onto the counter tops a plus. She likes people and is very sweet and purrs loudly and often. I love her but I cannot take care of five cats and the house is too small for it.

Did we get any $1?

[katsarecool]

Lyn, how did you put a pic into your post? I tried and failed.