15 years ago I found a creature who turned out to love me as very few creatures could. I found 4 kittens and a mother cat beside my mother’s house. Not wanting 4 more strays in the neighborhood, I took all five to the vet, had the mother cat fixed and released her but kept the 4 kittens. We bottle fed the kittens for several weeks till weaned and eventually found homes for all but one.

This brings me to my story. I tell this as I cannot bare the thought of loosing one memory of this special creature. We decided to keep her mainly because she was so ugly she was cute, she was a tortoise shell calico, all dark and muddy in color, but I came to see her beauty. She from the beginning gravitated to me, and loved me as if I was her dad.

As a kitten my wife Patti taught her, when you said “do the baby thing” and she would roll over on her back and let you rock her in your arms, as you would a child. We commented often that she did not know she was a cat, because of the way she slept; in between Patti and I flat on her back with her head on my pillow.

The older she got the more mature she became. We had a house in the country when she was about 6, she never in her life went outside, and had been fixed since she was a kitten, but was fascinated by a stray mother cat and her litter of kittens, on the back porch. She would sit and watch them play and be cared for by the mother cat for hours. Then we noticed that at bedtime she would gather her stuffed toys all together and bring them to bed with her. She would spread them out and bring them all to her belly as if she was nursing them. This went on for years, even to the point she broke into my son’s hamster cage, captured his hamster and bathed it to death.

She was about 10 when we adopted Ivy a black Burmese, from my son, when he went into the navy. She cared for this cat for several years until she was too tired to do so anymore. Then it was my turn, every night she and I had the same routine after dinner she would jump into my lap in my recliner and climb up on my chest, lay her head on my shoulder, nibble my earlobe and purr so loud in my ear I would have turn up the volume on the TV.

About a year ago I noticed she was losing weight, I changed her diet but this continued I new I had to prepare myself for the eventual realization that this relationship was fleeting. She eventually got frail could not jump up on my chair anymore I had to start picking her up, but the never stopped loving on my chest and Purring in my ear. She could not always make it to the litter box but this was a small price to pay for this love.

She finally left me last night, Patti found her early in the day unable to get up and she made her bed and let me know the time was near. I had to complete my day at work and go to school. When I came home from school Callie was laying in her bed barely able to move I petted her as she died several minutes later. I believe she waited for her daddy to come home so I could say good by.

I never expected this to affect me as it has, we think we can prepare ourselves for such an event but you are never really prepared. I can only thank the Lord for the time he gave us and remember the love and affection she gave me.

Thomas from TX