Love Sponges

One spring morning, I looked out my kitchen window and saw 5 kittens playing on my sidewalk. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken the time to catch the frightened little things, but I was too busy with my 2 human babies that were both wearing diapers at the time. To keep the cats from tearing apart our garbage, we put food out for them.

One kitten was a precocious calico named Cali Coco. She let Seiler pick her up and carry her, while I encouraged him to be gentle constantly. Cali Coco’s friendly demeanor led her into the neighboring yard of dogs. Seiler found her dead and chose to witness her burial.

Cali’s gray sister was very shy at first. With a camouflaged fur of mostly gray, Kevin named her Stormy. When she was definitely pregnant, it wasn’t difficult to catch her and bring her in for her delivery. She had 4 kittens on Ray’s birthday 2006, and the instant they were weaned I gave them all away. I will always regret not keeping just one. Mom-Mom was visiting and said that she will always remember Stormy’s pitiful cry for her missing babies. She has since then forgiven us, and become an ideal pet. She spends most of her day outside, but comes in to sleep regularly. She comes when called. She used to cry in the middle of the night, which made me put her out. Now Ray has taught her to sleep on the edge of the bed without stirring.

Before Stormy was spayed, she attracted a handsome Siamese mix with blue eyes named Sunny. He spent most of his time away, and eventually let us pet him while he ate. Last week he looked and smelled terrible. Half of his face was an ugly dark mess. We finally took him to the vet to be neutered and treated. Turns out he had a fever and a 6 inch infected gash around his face. He must have been in a nasty fight, but he’s retired now. He’s in my bathroom now with a drain in his chin that will be removed on Friday. Spaying and neutering sure does change an animal for the better! He just wants food, water and love. I’m going to keep them inside a little bit more. I love my cats, and they love me back tenfold.



June 11 ~ Update on Sunny: He rubbed his initial stitches out, so he got staples and a cone around his neck for at least another week. He looks pathetic. He follows me around a bit and flops down at my feet begging to be petted. When he tried to lick himself, he licks the inside of the cone. Poor thing.

June 18 ~ oh dear. idk why, but he had to get 2 more staples and the cone stays on for 2 more weeks. The nice thing about the cone is that it seems to be teaching him to be more tolerant of being handled.

June 29 ~ Yesterday Ray noticed that Sunny's face openend up again. It seems that he rubbed his staples out, even with the cone on. He goes back to the vet tomorrow. When Sunny licks the inside of his cone, in effort to lick his body, the cone scratches against his body. It makes an annoying sound that wakes us when we're sleeping.