Felines Past and Present
 

Well it's about time I assaulted you all with my cat pictures. Beware, the floodgates have opened!

The brown tabby was my fairy godmother in disguise, Mollie. We let her go this Thanksgiving, she was ~18. She had been diagnosed with kidney disease a year before that on Christmas Eve after a grand mal seizure. A couple months later, what we suspect was cancer started growing in her jaw- we changed her diet for KD and kept her only while she was comfortable and happy to be here. She adopted us during an october storm 11 years ago, and I wouldn't be who I am today without her.

Giant black furry monster girl is Hallie (smokey black). She's 6yo this year. Best nuzzler in the world, and very cuddly on her own terms. We have great conversations as she chirps and chirps away. You can't go a day with this cat without cracking up- she' just about the most uncoordinated cat I've ever met. :) And having slick floors doesn't help.

The last, and maybe the most special, is Posh (grey/cream torbie). We found each other when I was volunteering at a shelter near my college in SD. She was completely shut down, and wouldn't open up to anybody- until I came along. Try as I might, I never got her to bond to anybody else- so Christmas break came, and she got packed into my car for the 12hour ride home to CO!
What was really beautiful, is that when we met, she had an awful cold and ear infection...and as Mollie got worse back home around Thanksgiving, suddenly Posh started improving. I don't know if you believe in that kind of thing...but it made me think. They both have the exact same smile.


It has been so healing and rewarding watching Posh blossom in the real world- and teach Hallie how to play! Mollie was always the more regal matriarch in her later years, so Hallie never had a role model. So yes, very special.

Anyways, enough of my dribble, here are some pictures!
Posh and I at the shelter:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1268500881
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1268500963

Hallie monster
She doesn't photograph well (won't stay still) so this is the best shot I've gotten in 6 years.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1268501545

Sweet Mollie (RIP)
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1268501215
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1268501353

Beautiful, all of them!

Thank you, Nic!
Mollie in particular had been inspiration for many a photographer.

Hi Izzie, all your kitties are gorgeous! I've never met a cat I didn't think was beautiful but of course, yours are exceptional.

Mollie has that 'special' look and I'm so glad you were with her for those years. It's hard to let them go but when the mutual love is there, we do what's best for them. She'll always be your fairy godmother, it was her purpose in life and she'll continue even though she's no longer with you.

Hallie the entertainer, huh? She's pretty enough to get away with being a little 'off balanced'. Perhaps the hair is thicker in one ear than the other and it throws her off a bit!! (my cats have all kinds of excuses for their behavior)


Izzie, I have to confess that reading your post has caused tears to roll down my face. What a warm, caring and gentle person you are!!

Not simply because of your time spent at the shelter, not just because you adopted these cats, though all of that is quite admirable!

But more than that, you took the time and opened your heart and emotions to connect and understand these so special felines.

I do believe our cats are sent to us and we are meant for them. Maybe Posh smiles exactly the same as Mollie because she knows something you don't know. Maybe she's letting you know that a little piece of Mollie is still and always loving you.


Cats are special, mystical and magical. Those are the gifts they freely bestow on the people who love them.

Thank you for sharing these wonderful friends with us.

Thank you, sweet girl.
 

Oh Deb, now you got me going again! Mollie has been fiercely missed since Thanksgiving- I'm actually getting a very subtle tattoo (in a light brown/birthmark color) of her pawprint.
I get the feeling that you'll appreciate my devotion that I wrote for her around Christmas. It took me a while to be able to write it without getting weepy. I got it printed with a lot (100+) of pictures and made into a book that is now kept with a little clay pressing of her paw print.
(hope you guys don't mind the length)
Okay. I think I can do this now without being weepy the rest of the day.
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2182659_n.jpg

Mollie jumped into our car and adopted us on a stormy October night 10 years ago. At the time, we were amazed that she had been abandoned or was a stray, she was in such amazing condition (her coat was AMAZING). The vet aged her at about 7-8yo.
Since then, she has been my fairy godmother in disguise. Always there the second I started crying, but if I was just moping and wallowing in self-pity, she'd sit on the far side of the bed and give me the stink eye. :)
She always slept curled up against our chests under the covers every night. Always had the air of an old, aged Queen- she was the matriarch of our household. Mollie was one of the most photogenic cats I've ever known, and she was such an inspiration for my (and others) art. Her eyes held a universe.

This tiny little girl got me through High School, and I would not be who I am today without her. She taught me so much about unconditional kindness and patience.
It was hard being 12 hours away from her the past couple years whilst I've been in college.

Last Christmas Eve, she had a grand mal seizure in my lap- a terrifying blessing in disguise. Bloodwork at the ER that night revealed kidney disease.
She was perfectly happy and content to doze out her days in warm sunny windows and get special food to keep her kidneys going.
Four months ago a lump developed along her lower jaw bone. We never got it biopsied, but odds are it was cancer.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving she just started getting tired, and lost interest in her food. My mom did her best to keep her comfortable (she wasn't too terribly worse for wear) until I could come home over Thanksgiving break to say my goodbyes. She never told me how far the cancer had progressed- Mollie's lower jaw was overtaken. I broke down crying when I came home and saw her for the first time in 3 months. The end-stages of kidney disease are...awful, to say the least. She looked like some sort of "phantom of the opera" but all she wanted to do was reassure me, nuzzling into my arms and trying to tell me "it's okay, I'll be going to a better place, I love you, and you'll be alright."

I was able to spend a couple days with her before driving back to college on sunday, and the next tuesday she was laid to rest. She was 18.
She got turkey drippings mixed with her food all week, and got as much tuna as she wanted before she left.
In the end, I'm glad we let her go before she really started to waste away...

I have never been more thankful to an animal, nor even a person, than I am to Mollie. And that's what I told her before I had to drive off. Thank you, sweet girl, for taking care of me.
Here is our last picture together-
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs119...._7136661_n.jpg

And some from the past couple years-
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...5_728571_n.jpg
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3151904_n.jpg
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs099...._7907880_n.jpg
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._1677103_n.jpg

You have such a way with words Deb, thank you so much for your reply! :)

What special cats you have! And reading about Mollie really hits home. My tears are finally starting to dry.

They're all wonderful, thank you Izzie for sharing both the pictures and stories. :)

All beautiful pictures and a lovely story...I just can't say more than that right now :bua:

Hugs :blowkisses:

Izzie - I'm coming back to read this better in a bit - but love your photos. Just skimming what you wrote is starting the waterworks for me - I rather unexpectedly lost both my dear animals last year, and it's still so hard. Here I am tearing up quite badly already.
Your pictures are lovely - and your cats are beautiful! Will read your posts better in a bit - but wanted to comment - thanks so much for sharing :)