If you don’t have pets, don’t try to understand why these little ball of furs are like family. For as long I can remember, I always had at least one cat in my life. It started with Charlemagne, my first cat… I was 5 or 6. Cute little black cat, that smelled awful! After a good bath, it became a gray cat and oh boy was it hungry. Oh how happy was I! Charlemagne and I did everything together, he was my play buddy; to a point that when my Mom told me to put my toys away, I literally put him away in my toy box –Not to worry, my Mom went to get him out when she noticed that he was not following me down the stairs (no more than 5 -1 0 minutes). For more than 12 years, we were inseparable. Until came the day when we had to put him down.
I had told myself, I will never have another cat… this is too hard! Until Tiger came into our lives. A nice yellow cat (a little like Cisco we have now) that was left to survive outside when it’s owner moved out. Of course, Mother Theresa of cats (that’s me) couldn’t let that happen. Oh how I begged my parents to have that cat. Took some convincing, but being older now, I knew what I was getting myself into. My parents made it clear, it was MY cat. I had to take care of it… feed it and clean the litter. I was around 14 years old when Tiger came into my life. Took care of him until I left home at 20. That is when Mom told me that Tiger would be staying with them… they also grew attached to the little fur family member. Tiger was actually the first word my daughter said –why couldn’t my Mom teach her Mommy? However, just like Charlemagne, it came to a point where Tiger grew old, to a point that he wouldn’t eat anymore. My parents had to put him down.
It was difficult for both to see them go. I was not able to attend the vet appointment because my heart was aching so much at the idea that I wouldn’t see them again. To a point that I told myself that I would not have any pets when I would be living on my own. That didn’t last long…
Cotonelle
The love story with Cotonelle started 5 weeks after Christian was born. The only thing missing to complete the family was a cat. I went to the vet to adopt and saw this nice little white fur ball. Came to find out that she was born the exact same day Christian was… that was it, she was our family cat.
She was a little Mother at heart. She kept crawling into Christian’s crib to go snuggle into the stuffed teddy bears. The minute she was big enough to hold them in her mouth, she would pick up the smaller one and walk around the house as if it was her baby.
Michat
A little over 4 years later, Michat came into the family life. I had heard of some kittens in which the mother had passed away while giving birth. She was so small that the vet didn’t want to let me adopt her. After a lot of discussion, and warnings that they didn’t know if she would survive (different health issues), I brought her home. Cotonelle adopted her immediately. It was love at first sight
Time passed and both Cotonelle and Michat got along great! Then, Yves came into our lives… and so did Cisco!
Cisco
Cisco, the intellectual cat! This cat is so intelligent. Sometimes I wonder if he wasn’t a dog in a past life. He listens to commands, which is not typical of cats. He also has a little mischievous side to him. He loves to get on Michat’s nerves… and of course, Cotonelle always ends up in the middle of it all!
You would have thought that 3 cat would be enough… guess again!
Gizmo
Meet the last member of the fur family. After several trip to the pet store (for my aquarium), we kept noticing this beautiful boy in the showing area… I think it had been almost 2 straight months that we saw him. We couldn’t bare to leave him there… so we adopted him!
Needless to say that he got along great with the others!
Saying Good bye is hard…
We grow attached to these furry family members. We knew that at some point, we would have to go though the difficult task of saying goodbye to some of them.
It started with Cotonelle, on June 23rd, 2014 at 5h55am… she had started having neurological issues and there was nothing left to do. She passed away calmly in her bed at home, surrounded by all of us. It was a difficult to see her leave but I was prepared. We spent the previous day together lounging outside. She was an indoor cat… we can say that she was able to feel how the grass felt before passing.
I couldn’t imagine how it would be to have another one of my fur babies pass. Unfortunately, a week ago, on Friday October 27th, in the evening, we had to take our baby Michat to the vet. We knew it was coming but I couldn’t imagine it would have been this quick. She passed away in my arms. I can’t describe the feeling of coming back with an empty pet carrier. All weekend, I didn’t feel like doing anything… I was mourning the loss of a loved one. It’s been a week and I still feel myself becoming teary eye on occasion.
I don’t expect anyone to understand how I feel… I also don’t expect for anyone to tell me how I should feel. These are my fur babies, they are part of my family.
