Dreaming of a new home
I typically don't write anything but a caption to go along with the Friday Photo, but this Friday Photo is special. Maybe more like heart-wrenching!
Yesterday we had to say good-bye to our cat, Shadow. Whew, one of the hardest things I have had to do since....like childbirth!
Eight years ago, after a year of marriage, Matt and I picked Shadow out from about a choice of 8-12 from Ms. Debbie's farm in Blue Mound. Matt had been roofing on their house and convinced me that we needed a cat. I admit--I really wasn't a cat person. We had outside cats growing up, but I couldn't tell you their names, nor had much to do with them. On Labor Day weekend, along with our niece, Kara, we went to the farm to pick our cat.
I remember we debated between Shadow (originally named Smokey--which is the name of my sister's cat AND Matt's brother's cat) and another black cat Tipsy, which had a white blotch at the end of his tail. But do you know why we picked Shadow? Because she purred so loud (a quality which we adored, and later drove us crazy as we tried to sleep!). We let Kara pick a new name and after about 8 hours, her creativity at age 9, came up with the name Shadow. Shadow had the prettiest fur. My friend Sophie always said it looked like someone dripped bleach on her.
It wasn't long before Shadow had me wrapped around her paws :)
She was such a fun, playful kitten. And as cats do, eventually, decided that being lazy was more her thing. Do you blame her? She usually spent her days laying on our bed, or sitting on the back cushion of the chair by the window to watch the birds. And yes, she got fat! Happens to the best of us!
But 8 years later, along came this little guy into our life that kind of distracted all of Shadow's peaceful sleeping. I don't think she saw that coming!! Shadow decided to "act out"--in fact, looking back, it all started about the time I became pregnant (before I even knew I was pregnant). Her "acting out" didn't stop with water in the face, new cleaning products, nothing. It didn't stop when Parker was born. And it didn't stop when we moved to another house. In fact, she recently decided to add more bad behavior.
So as much as we hated to take away Parker's buddy (and motivation for speed crawling) and our beloved pet, we knew it was time for her to find a new home. Matt likes to say it was time to chose her retirement home. Unfortunately, waiting lists for no-kill shelters for cats means like a 6 month wait. Luckily, our neighbor (who also used to work for Girl Scouts), is now the Executive Director at the local shelter. After some begging, she got Shadow in. So we had 2 days to say our good-byes.
Parker shared his love by pulling her tail a few more times. And it may look like he was biting Shadow or pulling her hair...let's just call that hugs and kisses!
I miss that silly cat already. But I'm optimistic that she's going to get all the attention she needs in her next home. Surely she will be picked soon. I bet she will turn on the charm and get that purr machine a going!
No comments:
Post a Comment