We have a new addition to our family.  Three-out-of-four of our original cats are now deceased.  Grunt died Friday, New Year’s Eve on 12/31/04.  Indigo died the Monday after Thanksgiving on 11/28/05.  Monique died the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend on 05/27/06.  Exactly three weeks prior to Monique’s death, knowing it was approaching, we adopted Mr. Whiskers from a local shelter.  We knew that Bubba, as the sole survivor of our original cat family, would need a friend to survive the loss of his three siblings.  We woke that morning, 05/06/2006, and both had dreamt about the cats.  We went to the shelter and looked at hundreds of them.  In the last cage we looked into was a skinny gray and white cat with medium length hair who was named “Whiskers” by his previous owners.  He was curled up in a ball in his litter box.  I opened the cage and he walked towards us and walked up and wrapped his paws around my neck and “hugged” me.  I’ll spare you the rest of the details for now but, needless to say, we had found Bubba’s new friend.  And that he is.  He has not only helped Bubba in the adjustment and through some of the loss, but he has brought a great deal of energy and laughter into our home.  His whiskers are all white and indeed worthy of grabbing one’s attention.  His original name seemed a bit wimpy though so we dubbed him “Mister Whiskers”.  He is almost five years old – practically a kitten compared to his siblings who lived well into their teens and Bubba nearing 14 this week.  He is a blessing.

Indigo was a stray and showed up in my yard in June of 1992 so I have had him living with me for over 13 years. The vet, at the time, estimated that he was about a year and half minimum, so I assume he was about fifteen years old. Perhaps older? When he came into my life, he was mostly dead. He had lost a lot of weight, his hair was all matted up, and he was limping as one of his legs dangled from his body while he moved. We weren’t sure he was going to survive. He did survive. And was an excellent cat for all of these years. He died yesterday in my home with some assistance of the vet, the tech and myself. This was after a rapid decline since the night before Thanksgiving, just last week. I miss him dearly. I am so grateful though to have had his company and support for so long. He was a cat with a lot of dignity. He was incredibly helpful. He was sweet all the time. He was always there for me whenever I was sad about anything.

And he ALWAYS used the litter boxes. Seriously. Now that is a good cat.

OK, I tried to add a photo of one of my cats, Bubba, but I was unsuccessful. Perhaps my most excellent web guy will be able to help me out soon… (Hey Cody, I lost your email address, drop me a line when you can!)