Abby

Abby sitting on the couch (2000)

I've had Abby since 2000.  She was a stray that moved in with me one Spring day.  I say moved in because that's really what she did.  I first saw her lurking about the apartment complex where I lived with Shadow.  This big dark brown blackish puff ball with big green eyes would sit on railings watching the parking lot and the people coming and going.  I didn't think much of her and didn't even know she was a her until she moved in.

At the same time that she was hanging out in the complex there was a little gray cat that I was trying to catch.  I put a box, food and water outside my door hoping to entice the gray cat.  Problem was it was being courted by another apartment dweller and I only managed to catch a brown blackish puff ball.

curled up with orange mouse (2010)

The first time I saw Abby in the box she was curled up sleeping.  I'd come home from classes.  As I rounded the corner from my stairwell I could see a mound of dark fur and I knew exactly who it was.  I walked up, leaned down, ran my hand over the fur and went inside.  I figured the best approach wasn't to "ooh and aah" but to be nonchalant.

Now I've been blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it, with a cat that is afraid of the outside world.  Shadow is perfectly content to spend his life in a climate controlled dwelling watching from open windows and doors what the outside world is doing.  So, one Spring day I left the door open for him to watch as the world passed by.  I was sitting at my desk working on a paper when I heard a car door slam and out of the corner of my eye I saw a streak of black run past down the hall to the bedroom.  I figured the sound of the car had scared him.

I went to check on him and found him sitting on my pillow and Abby curled up on my bed.  She lifted her big green bug eyes to me, meowed once and I responded.  "Well, you're here now.  I guess you live with us."   

sitting on the bed (2009)

Abby was about three or four years older than Shadow when she came to live with us making her about sixteen or seventeen years old.  According to a book I just read the ratio of cat years to human years is 4:1.  So in human years Abby is sixty-four/sixty-five years old and she is every bit of her age.

A four summers ago she caught a pretty bad virus which included me having to administer saline injections to rehydrate her.  It was scary but I did it and she bounced back in a week.

Two weeks ago I noticed that she was very sick again.  She wasn't eating and drinking very little.  She was extremely congested, listless, and plain miserable.  So I took her to the vet.  She'd caught another virus and lost a pound which meant the administration of more meds. and saline injections.  After two days she got her spark back but it's a different kind of spark.  When once she wanted only to sit near me she is now sitting on my lap all the time.  At night she sleeps on me rather than next to me.  And she no longer minds being carried from one room to another.    

Bug eyes (2011)

I've also discovered that she can no longer eat her canned cat food as is.  I knew that she was no longer eating dry food as it was too hard on her gums and teeth but now even the canned stuff seemed to be giving her some trouble.  Experimenting, I pureed a can and let her try it.  She licked it up instantly.  So, now she gets pureed cat food.

As I sat watching her eat her food, stopping every few moments to look up at me with her cat food covered face I found myself laughing and holding back the tears as I thought, "Are we here already?"  How much time do we have? Do I have before I have to say good-bye? 

sleeping beauty (2012)

I'm not ready to let her go and I'm going to do my damnedest to keep her happy, healthy, and here.  But when it is time I will have no doubts that I've provided a good home and a happy life.  In return she's given me more love and devotion I could ever expect and deserve.  Because that's the way love is suppose to be.