We Are Back

TBT:   I had to take a few days off because I was feeling unimaginative, didn't have pictures, needed to get some house and yardwork done, but MOSTLY I was getting all warped up about IF and WHEN 'New Kitty' was finally going to arrive.  I even stopped visiting favorite discussion forums.

I spoke to the breeder (who has had a difficult year herself) yesterday.  It seems we have a firm delivery date Sunday Oct 31st.  Aside from the fact that it has been over a year since I first asked about adopting a female Tonkinese kitten with colors "generally" like Iza's (there was a waiting list and some discussion of my qualifications as a "Cat-Daddy"), there were some breeding problems.  

One Queen miscarried, there was a failed mating (I think), another litter was all Burmese chocolate colored.  I was tempted by the Burmese color Tonkie kitten.  It would be an interesting color, but I wasn't sure the "Iza" personality would be there.

The Gotcha Date is (as Spock might say" "fascinating".  I got Skeeter as a kitten on Halloween Day 1992 and LC the same date in 1993.  It wasn't deliberate and neither is this new arrival the same date.  Sometimes things "just happen".

I should explain why I sought a kitten who would look and maybe act like Iza.  I have gone beyond the idea of a "single" heart-cat .  Skeeter was for sure and I will never forget him.  LC became one, after she missed Skeeter and turned to me for comfort after.  It was only a year, but time doesn't define love.

The truth is that all mine are Heart-Cats in their own ways.  If one leaves a hole in my heart, another heals it.

When Skeeter and LC went Over The Bridge, Ayla healed me.  She had a hard start, needing 3 spay operations before things got right (the first two by the breeders vet). Many were the nights we struggled with her in heat while she set her claws in me "needing" something she did not understand.  When my OWN vet finally fixed her she became a lovey heart cat.  She seeks my attention.  She is aging. She went from "crazy" to "loving.  She is nearing 15 and when she crosses The Bridge, she will become a heart cat as an equal to Skeeter and LC...

Marley is going to be a legitimate Heart Cat someday.  He is special.  The friendliest cat I have ever had.  He puts up with anything and eats whatever I offer.  He loves to sleep under the covers with me at night (but not pushing against me).

We will see about Laz.  He needed a LOT of comforting and socializing for nearly a year after he first arrived and I almost gave up a few times.  He is still healing from the bad first home, but getting better every month.  He is STILL kinda of nuts sometimes.  But he is only 4 and has time to develop into a Heart Cat.  He has some promising traits (he loves Under The Blankets pressed against me).  I sometimes wonder what he will be like at 10.   

I'm not saying every cat is a Heart Cat.  When I was younger, I had a couple who were just plain MEAN.  I've been luckier since the 80s.  

But to end, I am SO looking forward to the new female Tonkie kitten arriving Sunday.  Laz came from a harsh home.  Lorelei Lee will be from a happy positive home and I can give her love and attention that Laz was cheated of in his early years.

And I'll continue to give Laz, Ayla, and Marley all the attention they can take...  'Mark's Mews' will continue to be of Happy Cats...

A Year Gone

TBT HERE:  Today, a year ago, I had a wellness vet visit scheduled for Iza.  When I got up I discovered it was no longer a wellness visit.  It was a goodby visit... 

In one way, the surprise was horrible.  But in another, it was a kindness.  Sure, she had shown some slight problems.  She wasn't eating perfectly, but she did eat.  She liked the heated mat a lot the last few months, but she always had sought warmth and comfort.  She never showed any discomfort about being held or being moved around on my lap.  She was purring the night before.  She was only 12.

I say "kindness" because  there were not months of slow problems as it was for Skeeter.  Neither was there a disappearance as it was with Tinkerbelle.  Nor was there a sudden death as with LC comatose in the basement one morning.  

Iza was just unusually tired one day, napping more than usual on the heated mat, and the next morning there was blood on her backside.  If the vet knew the cause, she didn't offer it and I didn't ask.  

I miss Iza SO VERY MUCH.  Skeeter was a heart cat; so is Iza.  You can have more than one.  

So, today, I am remembering Iza.  Iza of the Lap, Iza of the Minky Fur, Iza of the undercovers at night, Iza the Mouser, Iza who adored me, Iza who stayed as near to me every day inside as she could, Iza the "Smudged Siamese" until I learned she was a Tonkinese, Iza the toy-player, Iza the chaser of tossed kibbles, Iza the fastidious groomer, Iza cardboard ripper...

Remembering you today, sweet girl...   How can it be only a year?  It seems like forever.

I turn around expecting to see you there and you aren't.  I hear a sound in the night, but it isn't your voice.  I cross my legs on the ottoman but you don't come up.  

I would have missed you as much if you had lived all the days of my life.  I would never have thought you in my life was too long no matter how many years.  But you were gone too soon even of your kind...

In a way, the years do not matter.  Any number of years were too few.  Forgive me that I did not know how to extend them...

An Odd Surprise

TBT here:  I had a strange day yesterday.  I got up late and had to go visit the dentist for a 6 month checkup.  Everything is fine, but there is one tiny cavity that will be filled easily in 2 weeks.  I didn't eat before the visit.  And I didn't eat after.  I did some useful work around the yard and house.  And never got hungry.

Some days are like that.  And I wouldn't be posting this here (instead of on my personal blog) but it involves Skeeter.

I updated a few programs, and one tells me about blog visitors.  Don't worry, its nothing personal.  But it suggested that I had suddenly had some 1,000+ visitors.  Well, that happened many years ago and it turned out that some weerdos had gotten into really old Skeeter&LC posts and left ads in Chinese.  Took weeks to get rid of most of them and some are unremovable.

So, to look for new ads in old ones, I scrolled down my list of old posts and AT RANDOM, I  SWEAR, I landed on December 10, 2008.  Opened it.  Skeeter's Bridge Day...

I re-read the comments to that post for an hour.  And then the posts the next days.  It was hard, but sweet at the same time.  I still miss him so much after 11 years.  Ayla, Iza, and Marley have filled my life since he and LC went OTB.

I cried again reading the comments.   And so many friends.  Most don't blog anymore or have gone OTB themselves, or have changed blog names and I've lost track.  I clicked on a lot of the names to see if they were still blogging.  Well, back a few years when the "Prove You Are A Person" security started, I got annoyed and deleted some blogs from my Feedly list.  Stupid me...  I've been trying to find some of those bloggers lately and found most were unactive.

The list of bloggers who helped me through those dark days is very long.  And I was surprised at how many of you are still blogging.  Some I thought were "newer" were there then.  It was "enlightening".

Most wrote comments of support, some wrote poems, others encouraged me to pay attention to LC and Ayla.  All was so helpful to my grieving heart.  So I wanted to take time today to say "Thank You" to those of you who were there then.  And no disrespect to newer bloggers; you just weren't there then. 

Over the years, I still sometimes cry when I think of Skeeter (and LC).  But there is less pain when I do.  When I sometimes call Marley "Skeeter", it is just an accident of memory, not a wish he could be replaced with Skeeter. 

Skeeter was the first cat I had for so long from kittenhood to death.  That was profound.  Someone commented this year (I have the world's worst memory for names) that I shouldn't think in terms of "A" heartcat and she was right.  They are ALL "heartcats" now.  I could not choose among Ayla, Iza, or Marley for "heartcat" today. 

Ayla and I struggled together through 3 spay operations before it got done right.  And she HAS to greet me in the morning at eye level on the dresser or shoe rack.  Iza is so attached to me that she cries if we are both outside and she loses track of where I am.  So I always have an ear open.  And she is distressed if she isn't in the same room.  Marley is a lot like Skeeter.  But he wants to know where I am too.  Outside, he is MANCAT, Grim Reaper of mousies.  Inside, he wants my presence.

I cherish them all.  I know that someday, they too will leave.  And they will leave a huge hole in my heart when they do.  I have trouble imagining a time when one or all are gone.  They are my constant companions.  I talk to them and they talk back.  I speak basic "cat".

I tried to imagine my life without cats in it a few days ago.  I couldn't.  There will be cats in my life until they haul me off to the crematorium.  Or the hospice or nursing home, whichever happens first.  I understand them (a brave statement to make but one I am sure of).  They are not my "pets" or my "children".  They are my housemates and my friends.  Yeah, maybe they require more care than other housemates (but you should have seen SOME I had in apartments). 

Anyway, this, I suppose, is a post of joy to The Mews.  Long may they walk with tails high, use the litterboxes. cost more in food than I spend on myself, and gladden my life every day...

BTW, I never found any "chinese ads", so I don't know what Statcounter was telling me.