I love all my cats, past and present. I have to admit, though, two of them are a bit special to me. I don’t love them any more than the others, but there’s just this particular feeling about those two. I suspect it’s because I didn’t adopt these two cats because they needed me (unlike the others), but because, in a way, I needed them. Adopting them just seemed to complete my life and my home. A shelter staff member once laughed at the first two I’d chosen from their organization, these two, saying they were the “yin and yang” of the shelter. I often said it was as though they were my heart and my soul: Afer my heart, so brave and strong, slightly elusive, expressing pure joy at the simple pleasures of being petted or brushed, a bit of cheese or sour cream from my plate… Omaha my soul, so smart and loyal, hardened by life yet so protective of those he loved, distrusting and willing to fight to the end for what he wanted (or didn’t want), ready to do whatever he wanted or needed to do despite any obstacles faced…
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Posts Tagged ‘Afer’
Completion
Posted in Chi-Town Fur Gang, tagged Afer, cats, death, euthanasia, grief, Omaha on October 12, 2008| 6 Comments »
Tornado!
Posted in Chi-Town Fur Gang, Life of the Lintee Bean, tagged Afer, cats, Jellybean, Kitty.com, Louie, Omaha, Ralph, Rumpelmintz, Studley on August 5, 2008|
We had a ton of storms yesterday. Lots of rain, thunder, and lightening. For once, I got lucky and I actually landed up commuting when it wasn’t horrible out and got home pretty dry. I was nearly done with evening “cat chores” when the radio announced there were three of four tornadoes sited. One was destined to reach a neighborhood very close to mine in ten minutes.
What to do? Of course it wasn’t my neighborhood, but it was close enough that did I really want to take that risk? Not like I could manage to get eight cats downstairs quickly. So, I sprang into action (and if you knew me, you’d know just how ludicrous the idea of me “springing” into anything is.)
I finished giving Afer her sub-q fluids, then dished out their food. Why would I choose to feed my cats at this moment? Easy – so they’d stay put, in the kitchen, and I didn’t have to chase them all over the house.
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Cold Breakfast
Posted in Chi-Town Fur Gang, tagged Afer, cat food, cats, Latifah, Louie, Omaha, Rumpelmintz, Studley on November 28, 2007| 3 Comments »
My friend Heather has inspired me to make some small steps toward being more eco-friendly. I started with some easy things. Rather than scooping the litter boxes and putting the “nasties” in an empty (used for cat food) plastic freezer bag, I’d use paper bags. Hopefully, even though they’re still going to landfills they’ll eventually disintegrate so future generations aren’t dealing with plastic bags full of cat poo. Also, rather than putting the homemade cat food in those plastic freezer bags, I’m using plastic tubs, which can be washed and reused. Baby steps.
The drawback to the tubs is the food takes much longer to warm than in the bags. I was tossing a bag of food in a bowl of warm water before meals, doing some other things, then pulling it out and serving. I’m doing the same with the tubs, but perhaps because they float so they’re not surrounded by warm water, they just don’t warm nearly as quickly. This morning, the food was still cold – still frozen in the center, but I had to get going (see Late-ness) so I just stirred it up and served it.
The cats were HORRIFIED. Louie didn’t eat. Afer ate only a little. Omaha barely nibbled. Rumpelmintz was yelling and complaining and hitting other cats for eating any of the cold breakfast, as they might convince me this was acceptable.
Studley and Latifah still ate well. Latifah ate her own and tried to finish everyone else’s. She said she didn’t mind.
Afer
Posted in Chi-Town Fur Gang, tagged Afer, CRF on July 26, 2007|
Afer, a.k.a. Lil Miss Mouser, a.k.a. Afer E. Baby, Afer E. Grannie
I adopted Afer from the shelter in January 2004. I loved Afer from the minute I began volunteering there in June 2002. She’d been at Tree House since she was 3 years old (1991). I felt I didn’t have room for any more cats, though. She was adopted by someone else in the spring of 2003. However, somehow she escaped her new home and was on the streets for months. Honestly, we had little hope for a 15 year old cat loose on the streets. However, someone found her, and through her microchip she found her way back to the shelter.
In January 2004, she spent time in the shelter’s clinic with gastro-intestinal issues. That cinched it for me. I couldn’t stand it if she spent the rest of her days in the shelter. I took her home, at age 16. She’s flourished. She gets night crazies, and loves her catnip mouse. She loves to put the “younger girls” in their place, if they act up. (I do feel bad for the girls, but it’s so hard not to laugh at a little gray Afer E. Grannie all puffed up and looking like a little old woman with a walker whose hitting a hoodlum on the head with her purse.)
Afer loves to be brushed and petted, and will do “kitty yoga”, practically doing handstands her butt gets so high. She’s still nervous of being picked up or restrained, but we’re working on that. She’s doing extremely well, considering within her first week here I had medicate her. She likes to play with pom pom balls, her catnip mouse, catnip pillows, and plastic rings. She also enjoys napping in a donut bed, or watching the world from a windowsill.
Afer was diagnosed with kidney disease in August 2004. Fortunately, with treatment her values are staying fairly stable. I took Afer to the emergency vet clinic Christmas Eve, 2006 with labored breathing. She had 145 cc’s of fluid drained from her chest. She was able to come home Christmas Day. A visit to a cardiologist showed nothing significant – minor heart issues and very small nodules on her liver (too small to biopsy). So far, the fluid hasn’t recurred.
In May of 2007, she had a vestibular episode secondary to an ear infection. (It counts among the scariest moments of my life. I saw her begin rolling violently on the floor and just started screaming and crying as I tried to hold her so she wouldn’t hurt herself.) Once again, she amazed us all with a speedy and complete recovery! Go Afer!
Update: Sadly, I lost Afer October 10, 2008 to congestive heart failure.
Life of the Lintee Bean 