I Must Confess: over the years I have owned and loved a wide variety of pets – cats, guinea pigs, fish, cockatiels and hermit crabs (although I have never had a dog. Must do something about that one day!).
But it is the kittehs in particular that have won my heart.
Kittehs I have Known and Loved
It all started with Miss Kitty when I was 12 years old. A sweeter natured little cat you could never hope to meet. She was dressed up in dolls’ clothes, wheeled around in prams, hugged and cuddled and just generally loved to within an inch of her life.
A few months later we inherited Pinky, a tabby with a pink nose and a bit of a ‘tude – she was named after Pinky Tuscadero, a tough leather-wearing character on Happy Days. We even used to take these two cats camping – they thought the beach was just one gigantic litter tray!
When the hubster and I got married, we decided to get a kitten. As we were married in May, it was the wrong time of year for kittens so we had to wait several months before we came across one at the pet shop. She was a teeny tiny thing, clearly the runt of the litter. We named her Chloe: she was so little, we used to say that she could run around on a plate!
Of course, as is always the way, no sooner did we get Chloe, than somebody at work had kittens looking for homes. As we were both working full time, we thought another kitten would be good company for Chloe – and so Natasha joined our family.
Sadly, Natasha disappeared when she was about 5 years old.
Chloe however was a much treasured pet until she died of old age when she was 15.
Several months later, a workmate was trying to find a home for a stray cat that had turned up. She couldn’t keep him herself, as her own cat was not impressed.
Tigger was a big bruiser of a cat, having been a stray he was a bit wild particularly at first. But he soon settled down, and would often curl up on our laps while we were watching TV, though he would never let us pick him up.
Sadly, he died from a paralysis tick in October 2012 after we’d had him about 5 years. (It also just happened to be the week I got made redundant – what a horrible time that was!).
As I was now working from home, I was keen to have another furry companion and so, again through somebody at work, we heard about a litter of half-Siamese kittens that were looking for homes.
Misty joined the family in December 2012, and was our my much treasured and adored fur baby. She was hit by a car and killed in April this year and after the Council rang to tell me, I took off my jumper, stuffed it in my mouth and screamed and screamed and screamed before bursting into noisy sobs.
Although I’d loved all our kittehs I think it is safe to say that Misty was my “baby”, and I was absolutely devastated by her loss.
So when the time came to get a new kitteh, I had a couple of new groundrules:
- This one would be an indoor only cat (as I couldn’t bear to lose a pet prematurely again); and
- We would adopt a kitteh that needed a fur-ever home.
We brought Miss Fleur home in August – she was 11 months old and had been in foster care with her brothers since she was 2 1/2 weeks old. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you probably already know what she looks like (only too well!), but just in case you don’t …
I still miss Misty, but Fleur has brought so much joy and cuteness into our lives. I seriously think people under-estimate how important it is to have CUTENESS in your life – whether it’s a puppy, kitteh or baby!
How do you get your daily dose of cute – do you have a cat, a dog, or???!