All the Furbabies

In my life, there have been only 2 periods where I did not have at least one pet. My father was always an animal lover, and growing up on the farm, there were always cats around. We had a few dogs growing up, too. I remember Snowball, and Nookie (short for Nanuk of the North), both American Eskimos. Both really good dogs.

But it was always about cats for me. I can’t even count how many cats I’ve had the honour of loving.  Before I was even in kindergarten, there was Helen the calico. She was the sweetest, most gentle cat. I remember dressing her in doll clothes, and  putting her in my doll carriage and taking her for walks. She had the sweetest temperament. And she had 2 litters per year for a long time, so she kept the farm populated!  I can’t even remember most of their names – I should have been better at keeping track. 

In high school, there was Ellie, named after Mark Messier, #11. She really loved her catnip!  She was a lot of fun to play with.  I had to leave her behind when I moved to Toronto. Broke my heart. 

For a year in Toronto I was without a cat. I was living with my sister, and I convinced her to agree to having a cat in the apartment. I found Chelsea as a kitten at the pet store in the mall where I worked part time. Remember the days when pet stores sold kittens?  I picked out the feistiest looking kitten in the litter. Chelsea stole my heart – she was the love of my life.  She was the sweetest girl, but she was very troubled. Her vet believed she had been abused before I got her, and diagnosed her as being bipolar (I’m not making this up, I promise!). He refused to see her unless she was sedated, and prescribed her Valium. Luckily, she mellowed a bit as she grew older, so the Valium was just short term.  Chelsea had a stroke and passed away on August 30, 2011. She was 19 years old. I still miss her like crazy.  I have her ashes in a beautiful glass vessel in my library, so she’s still with me. 

I went almost 5 years without any pets in my life. I didn’t think I could withstand the heartbreak. During that time, I hung around with this guy for a while who was surprised by how big a role animals had played in my life. He said that he just “didn’t care for them”, or some such nonsense. That, my friends, was a screaming neon red flag to which I should have paid more attention. That relationship ended badly, not surprisingly.  A few months later, I decided I was ready to fall in love again – with an animal! Enter Frankie and Lily, from the farm. They were only about 5 weeks old, but there was never any feral in them. That guy (the one who didn’t care for animals) had done such a number on me that I was terrified that the kittens wouldn’t like me. And I was worried that I was now responsible for 2 living creatures. But thankfully, the Babies took to me almost as fast as I took to them, and we’ve been a happy family ever since. 

June of 2020 found me back on the farm, returning the Babies to their birthplace. I remember the day I moved back, that was the first day that I remember meeting Callie. She had just had kittens even though she was probably just a year old herself. Only 1 kitten had survived, and she was looking after it right by the back door. Fast forward 4 months: Callie’s remaining kitten didn’t make it, not for anything Callie had done; she was just too young to sustain a kitten. Anyway, I had fallen in love with Callie and once again, convinced my sister to let me bring her into the house. I couldn’t bear to see her living outside for another winter. The family of 3 became a family of 4!

As you know, we’re now a fivesome, with the addition of Henry in 2024. He’s a whole other story, which I’ll save for another post. 

We have an entire family of semi-feral cats on the farm. Some have been with us for years, and there were a lot born last year. Frankie and Lily’s birth momma is still hanging around, producing a new litter each spring. 

Only a few kittens have survived from this year. There was one I had to put down earlier this summer – she had been fine one day, but the next I found her and she couldn’t move her back legs. She was completely paralyzed. I took her to the vet – she fell asleep in my arms in the car on the way there. They could have run tests and scans to see what was wrong, but Dr Yvonne didn’t have much hope for the results. The kitten was so young, there really was only one option.  I sobbed like a baby, and Dr Yvonne was kind enough to give me a hug. 😢 Poor little kitten didn’t even have a name. I brought her home to the farm to be with her family. 

So that’s me. Tell me about starving or injured children?  Meh. But show me that ASPCA commercial with the Sarah McLachlan song, and I’m a wreck!  I would have made a terrible human mother, but I’m a damn fine momma to my furbabies! ❤️