Pets

We've got a kitty named Belle...she has been with us since September 1996...she is getting up there in age and it shows. More so, lately. She meows constantly if she's not sleeping and it's not a "I'm in pain" meow. I think she is telling me to piss off most of the time cause I don't feed her when she wants me to or let her outside. It's hard for her to jump to places she easily has before on some days...others she is up there no problem. She sleeps in the oddest places lately and they aren't comfy ones either! She will demand to go outside (she is an indoor cat mainly) and she will just lay in the flower bed or on the sidewalk (concrete) path in front of the porch for hours. She has never slept in any of the bathrooms - ever and she will do that every day now...weird. Right now, she is laying on the metal fireplace hearth sleeping like nobody's business. Belle must have been sick all last week and this weekend because typically she will wake me up for breakfast every morning and demand I get to it...she will race me downstairs (One day I will trip over her and beat her to the bottom!) Belle is more my pet than anyone else's in the family. She tolerated Jennifer (who wanted the cat) and had nothing to do with Valerie (I think because when Val was little, she would be a bit too rough with her) and will only give attention to Mark if she wants outside and I already vetoed it. She sleeps on top of my pillow at night, I have conversations with her..and yes she answers me, contrary to my kids arguments. Anyway, back to the sickness part. She didn't come down in the morning with me for 5 days...it wasn't till like lunchtime when she appeared to eat and she really was slow moving at times. Monday she didn't even come downstairs until around 8pm...her food was untouched until then. Hubby said when he was home she stayed on the bed sleeping and that's where she was that evening till 8pm. She threw up sometime in the middle of the night, I know this because I stepped in it when I went to the bathroom! Nasty feeling on your feet! Yesterday, she flew downstairs like normal and is acting fine once again. All of this made me think of my past pets, which were few!

I guess I was about 3 or 4, I remember having pet turtles, small ones that lived in a fish tank...I think they died because one day there were there and the next gone lol. They were fun to play with outside the tank too.

When I was in 3rd grade I got a cat because my parents didn't approve of my imaginary sister that lived in Japan...well her name was Twinkles and she loved me, tolerated my dad and wanted nothing to do with mom lol. She lived forever...I mean she was OLD when she died of feline leukemia and is buried in the backyard of the house my parents live in right now. When we lived in Wayne Heights, Twinkles would get outside at times and made friends with the dog that lived downstairs, Sheba. Once I got married, Mark didn't want to bring the cat with us so when we would visit, Twinkles let me know she was not happy with me abandoning her! I was no longer a thought.

Sometime in the first years of our marriage, Mark brought home a kitten which we named Cricket...beacuse she jumped like one LOL. She was our party kitty...she HATED people except for us. When people came over, she would hiss and growl at them and the hide somewhere. We had a party once, I think it was for Stacie's husband's birthday and Cricket hid the in bathtub and the shower curtain was closed so you didn't know she was there. One of the guests went to the bathroom and came out screaming...said there was something in the shower LOL..It was Cricket hissing LOL. We gave Cricket to a new home right before I gave birth to Jennifer, we weren't sure how it would react to her. Have no idea how she is now.

Which brings us to Belle. I truly think her days are numbered...I will miss her terribly when she is gone. Jennifer asked me what I would do and I told her...I will cry and probably get another kitty...I need company until my girls are married and give me grandchildren! Of course my girls both say they aren't having kids LOL.