I married a dog person. I am a cat person. It took great amount of love and respect to allow three girls to upheave my husbands life (me and my two calico cats). He was outvoted and outbathroomed… He fell in love with my girls.

One day, when i was at the dentist, he visited the pet store next door. He excitedly and with lots of feeling (so unlike my husband) said that he found a kitten that was unlike all other cats. We visited the pet store and needless to say, we came home with a boy kitten in a cardboard box.That was the beginning of a cat/man relationship. The girl cats, Banshee and Kirby were “mine” and the boy cat, Grommet, was “his”.

We put down a deposit for a house to be built, and were boxing up our numerous books when Banshee took a turn for the worse. I was surprised, she was the younger of the girls. She had an intestinal issue and we had to put her to sleep. My husband went back down to the vet’s to get her little body and he buried her in our woods that we were building near. Within a year, Kirby died at our new house and buried near Banshee. Grommet was lost and wandering around the house. He could see the hurt and pain I was feeling for my two girls. He spent more and more time with me and now he is like my shadow.

We got two brothers, Wallace and Sprocket, both kittens from where we got Grommet to help him, life was good. Sprocket with his antics and goofyness, and Wallace being stand-offish, yet loving when he thought no one else was around except me. But we were missing something…

I was hinting for a long time that I felt outvoted by all the maleness in the house. My husband brought home just before Thanksgiving, 2007, a little grey dirty kitten that was found in an old MG. She spent about 4 weeks in the back of the British garage. She is now the delight of our house. Her name is Fiona. She sleeps on the most expensive furniture and has claimed a mohair blanket as hers. She survived being towed on an MG engine, survived being “test driven” by the mechanic. She survived using oil cleanup as her litter box. Fiona is now home. She is our rescue cat. We all love her. Just tonight, my husband got out the brush and brushed her. He is what I call a “kitty convert”. I adore him, I adore our feline family.

I have never forgotten Banshee and Kirby, and never will. I look at the trees where they are buried al the time. It still hurts, they were part of my family…

Mark, I just got done reading your Sprite book. I understand your grief and your pain. We, who has lost pets, share your loss. I am glad you now have Griffen for not only for you but for Pepsi. Grommet, I know, would not be here today because of his grief, if it weren’t for Wallace and Sprocket.

P from Michigan