Pet Pawties In A Box Posting Page
Monday, April 22, 2013
Woof! My Friends...

Mistress realized one recent day that our home was a Senior Assisted Living home because all the 4-legged inhabitants had reached that status...
  • Buddy, The Dachshund (almost 18 years)
  • Sascha, The Dachshund (almost 13 years)
  • Nathan, The Stinker, er, Dachshund (10 years)
  • Roo, The Dachshund (borderline senior at 9 years)
  • Catya, The Tuxedo Cat (13 years)
We are "only" assisted with good food and home-baked treats, soft bedding, couch cuddles, daily pills for Buddy and Sascha, and our good fortune of  Mistress no longer being distressed over hair on the couch and the occasional accident on the floor. 

Catya, the cat, is often ignored in my blog posts, so I want to dedicate this one to her; after all, she hasn't scratched me once when I've chased her around the house!

Before Catya, The Tuxedo Cat (black/white markings), there was ClaireBell (the Previous Tuxedo Cat) who only lived for 4 years. ClaireBell came to live here in 2000 very serendipitiously: 

In the late 1990's no pets lived here, (the last one, Sneezies, had gone over the Rainbow Bridge). Mistress had decided that was the way she wanted it. She was traveling a lot for business, and  living a very self-centered life. It was lonely, of course, but the clean house was the reward! Tami visited one day, noticed the empty life, and suggested they go to the Cat Shelter to pick out a kitten - "No!",  Mistress said emphatically! "Well, if you found one", Tami continued, "what would it look/be like?

Mistress said  (believing it would quiet Tami), "It would be a girl, with black and white markings like a Holstein Cow, 10 weeks or less, intelligent, pink-nosed, not feral, and her name would be ClaireBelle!".

So, as the story goes, that was the end of all discussions regarding Mistress' kitten adoption. Little did she know that a few weeks later Tami received a call from a friend who was vacationing on Kipu Kai Beach on Kauai. She told Tami about a wee (5 weeks old) black/white female kitten (with a pink nose) that had followed them (while plaintively meowing) during a morning walk. The puzzling thing was there weren't any buildings or people around them - where did this wee kitten come from? Nevertheless, the kitten was picked up, immediately cuddled down with all who held her,  purred relentlessly, and stole hearts. No one claimed her, and not one of Tami's vacationing friends could claim her as their own - but all agreed she couldn't be left behind because she was so engaging, sweet, and intelligent. The call to Tami was a plea - "Do you know anyone who can take her?". Tami said, "I have someone! You have found Mistress' ClaireBelle!".

ClaireBelle found a home in California, and Mistress' life changed.....Mistress opened her heart to all of  ClaireBelle's love, and felt the weight of loneliness lifted.

Pets often create an awareness of brilliant realization, and Mistress understood after ClaireBelle entered into her life how acute her loneliness had been. She sublimely accepted pets do enrich life; and ClaireBelle was the purrfect pet to do just that.

With great sadness ClaireBelle came down with FIP and crossed over the Rainbow Bridge at a mere four years old. Mistress was devastated, and with a mournful heart felt the loneliness creeping back.

During this time Mistress' field of work (the Dot-Com industry) was going through a serious decline. Mistress was in a senior position at her company, but knew so many were getting laid off it could happen to her...It did.  Just  3 days after ClaireBell passed, Mistress was laid off. She was devastated because nothing like this professional rejection had ever happened to her. At home, there was no cuddling/purring to comfort her, her new man lived 2 hours away, and the days were so long! Mistress decided ClaireBelle's lesson to love remained in her life - so off  to the Cat Shelter she went. There were 100's of cats in cages that day, and Mistress began to feel she had made a mistake - it was so sad  to know she couldn't free all of them from their cruel oppression...and that she hadn't met one that tugged hardest on her heart strings to adopt. She had just decided to leave and come back another day.  Then she saw it - a tiny paw waving frantically through the bars of a cage Mistress had  walked past earlier. "What's this?", she thought while walking back to the cage. The waving paw said, "Pick Me! Over here! Pick Me! - with distinct plaintive meowing...There our Catya was, black/white, 6 weeks old, and so much like ClaireBelle except her nose was black and pink! "How did I miss this baby?", Mistress thought...then learned that sometime after she had passed these cages,  Catya was caged - she had been in a foster home until she was big enough to adopt. She only spent a total of 15 minutes caged in the Cat Shelter before she was adopted :-)
13 years later Catya thrives - she sleeps on Mistress' bed, purrs on demand, and is a constant Mistress shadow....we, The Dachshunds, are jealous of her, but know Mistress loves us all equally. We will always be thankful for the sweet ClaireBelle who taught Mistress the heart can open to many. 

Love 'n Licks!
Nathan, The Dachshund


by: Pet Pawties In A Box

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]