kitties | Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Now that we’re counting down weeks in the #MFRW 52-Week Blog Challenge, it seems the weeks are speeding by. Christmas decorations are in the stores. I bought some yesterday Oh, my! Again, here we are with another Friday post for the Blog Hop.

Week 43: Meet My Pets (Furry Family Members)

This week’s topic messed with my heart. I had to make the decision whether to skip this week or go for it. It’s too soon to write much about my fur baby girl, Kasha. I’ll briefly mention her, but after that, I’ll mention my three grand-kitties. Clancy, Zuko, and Sokka.

Kasha was an Australian shepherd mixed with chow. She weighed about sixty-five pounds in her good days. My son got her from a shelter. Her age was around ten months old. Jim knew they were a match from the moment he saw her. Me too. When he’d go visit her the few times before taking her home, they told him she’d jumped or climbed over one of their six-foot-high fences. She hated being cooped up in a room or kennel. We didn’t know her history, so we understood it had something to do with her past.

Every time I’d visit them my heart melted a little more, but then it broke when I’d have to return to my home across the state. Eventually, I moved in with her and my son. Kasha and I moved into an apartment a little over two years ago, but we were together almost 24/7 for the past seven years, and on and off for seven before that.

When she could still take walks, we had a nice area on the grounds here. The place where she’d been cremated, had made a ceramic plaque with her name and a paw print. The vet also sent us a sympathy card and included a poem that I won’t be able to look at again for many years to come. It’s called Rainbow Bridge. She was fourteen. Between the two of us, we gave this sweet dog a good life, and she sure gave us one, too. It was meant to be.

Well, now look at this. I managed to write more than I thought I could. The image right above is the same one on my book cover for Whispers of Forever. Click on the cover in the gallery in the sidebar to enlarge. I’m so happy that I wrote her into one of my books where she will live on in the story.

Meet My Grand-cat Clancy:

I guess he wanted to go outside.

Clancy is fourteen years old and my oldest son’s cat. They live in California. He and I both searched our old computers for the pictures above. I couldn’t find mine. He did! ❤ I love the picture of him in the cereal box. His ex-wife brought the cat home one night. They already had another very old cat named Boots. The wife left. Clancy remained. The only experience I’ve had with owning a cat took place briefly when I was a teenager. A black cat came to our house one Halloween, stayed a week, and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

Clancy is in camo in the above picture. 🙂 He has free rein of the neighborhood since he has a cat door to come and go as he pleases.

Clancy is a typical cat, and from my experience, he doesn’t take to strangers. He’s crazy about Chris, you know, in a cat way. I don’t know how Clancy is with my son’s girlfriend. When I visit, it takes forever for Clancy to get close to me. It’s my fault because I don’t visit often enough. He’s true to his owner, though, and often brings him lizards and birds. Isn’t that sweet of him? When my son goes away, Clancy enjoys bringing gifts to cat-sitters, too. I guess he’s in and out all night, so he curls up in blankets on my son’s bed and sleeps there on and off during the day. Meow.

On the prowl for lizards?

Okay, you can tickle my belly.

Meet My Grand-kitties Zuko and Sokka.

Huh, wait, where are they? Well, their mom and dad are still on their honeymoon, and haven’t sent me pictures yet. (By the way, son and DIL experienced TWO hurricanes while in Ireland. Now they’re in Washington, D.C.) Zuko and Sokka started out as my daughter-in-law’s kitties. She had Zuko first, but she got Sokka for Zuko so he’d have a buddy. Maybe it’s the other way around. They became attached to my son in no time. It was like they knew that if Mama loves him, then he can stay. They are males and they’re both black.

I can barely tell them apart. Zuko is a lot longer than Sokka. Zuko is kind of social with strangers, more than Sokka. In fact, Sokka hides and rarely comes out if anyone besides my son and DIL are in the house. I cat-sat for a week once… I didn’t see Sokka for the first few days.

They survived their move to Virginia, but I don’t think I’d want to be in the car with them for a long ride. I’ve been told the boys can be a noisy bunch when in their carriers.

THIS IS A BLOG HOP:

I’m excited to see what kind of pets (furry family members) the participating authors have. Join me in visiting their sites.

Thanks for reading today. Have a terrific weekend.