An Old Lady

I have always been an animal lover. As kids, my sister and I had everything from hamsters, beta fish and rabbits to cats, dogs and horses as pets. We learned responsibility. We learned compassion. We learned about new life though baby bunnies, baby hamsters and kittens. We learned about death, grieving and the need to move forward.

Life lessons.

Valuable lessons that have helped to shape the woman I am today - the mother that I am today.

All of my childhood pets are gone by now... well, except for one very old lady. My mom still has our old farm kitty, Cara. 

Cara is 20 now. 

That is pretty old for a cat. 

That's pretty old for a farm cat from Iowa that probably would have never made it past her third birthday living on a farm as a Ferrel cat. Farm life is tough on cats. Especially REAL farm life. Not like the farm life Miss Kitty has. She is a pampered princess compared to real farm cats. The only thing she has in common with a real farm cat is the farm.

Cara and her sister Calo were born on my Great Aunt Phillis and Great Uncle Jr's pig farm in Iowa. We had gone back to Iowa to visit family and spent a day out on Phillis and Jr's farm. Christi and I ran a muck chasing the new farm kittens. I am pretty sure we chased those poor kittens for hours until two of them finally decided to just give up and let us catch them. Once we did - oh we were keeping them! 

Even back then I had superb negotiation skills and sales pitches. We were able to convince my mom to let us keep not just one, but BOTH kittens. After all, they needed each other. They were sisters. Not too mention, Christi and I would have fought over the one for sure. It was both or non. I have to admit that my mom can be a push over when it comes to animals. She was an easy sell, especially since my dad was still in Colorado and had not made the trip to Iowa with us. Had be been there...

For the next few days we were in Iowa, we had to sneak the kittens into my Grandma Eveleth's house. She was not a huge animal lover. We would make sure to take the kittens out to use the lawn. That very night we adopted the cute little darlings, one got away. We spent a couple hours calling for the kitten, using her sister as a decoy, until we finally found her in a tree. We should have known right then that these two kittens would be quite the adventure.

The ride home was comical. At the time, my sister and I thought it was magical. Twelve hours in a car with two baby kittens to play with - what more could two little girls dream for? It was gumdrops and rainbows until about 6 hours in and suddenly my mom and my Aunt Shelly thought they smelled something strange. Something that definitely resembled - cat poop. 

One of the darling little kittens had used my sister's beloved blanket as a litter box. 

As soon as Christi saw poop, she freaked out and started screaming and shaking her blanket in furry trying to get the poop off her blanket. 

75 miles an hour on  highway 80 across Nebraska...

Cat poop flying through the air...

Mom and Aunt Shelly screaming...

Two kittens scurrying...

Priceless!

Our wonderful dad sure did miss us. He was so happy to see us - and then he saw the kittens. Surprise! He didn't have much of a choice at that junction. We were attached and pretty far from the farm to just go put them back. Animal ambush. 

Once word got out, we were the most popular girls among all our friends. All of our neighborhood friends, school friends, my horse friends came to see the new sister kittens. They snuggled, pet and held Calo and Cara. Such blissful days!

A little over a week after we got home, we noticed Calo and Cara were suddenly losing some hair in random places. A little patch here... a little patch there. Off to the vet for their first vet appointment!

After a quick examination, the vet smiled slightly and gave us the diagnosis, "Well I am sorry to say, but both of these kittens have ring worm. You see that little rash on your daughter's arm... the kittens have given your daughter's ring worm too. Your daughters will need to see a doctor as well to get some topical ointment to clear that up. It's very contagious."

Over the next couple days, my mom began receiving calls from the neighborhood parents, the school parents, the horse parents... We were the ring worm family and we had given all of our friends and their families ring worm. 

My dad cussed under his breath and swore if he got one spot on his body the kittens were gone. A few mornings later... he had a spot. 

Obviously, he didn't make us get rid of the kittens. 

Once the ring worm was gone it was back to rainbows and butterflies. 

Months went by and then one night we heard this god-awful guttural noise coming from Calo. All night long she howled. Finally, she was evicted to the garage by my parents. The next morning, there were several stray tom cats hanging around the house. That afternoon we came home from school and right there in the driveway my sister and I got a lesson on the birds and the bees.   

Cara was shipped off to the vets office to be spayed. 

Calo became a mommy. Christi and I watched as her belly grew. We made a little birthing box and watched her deliver her four little kittens. A memory I will never forget.

Midnight, Katherine, Mommy Calo, Sierra and Socks.

Go ahead and say it...

Dork is an appropriate word here.

We found homes for all of the kittens except Midnight. He was the mightiest hunter I ever knew. He could catch mice, moles, squirrels, you name it. 

Over the years we lost Calo and then our smokey colored Midnight a few years later. 

But petite, little Cara still calls my mom's house home after all these years. She barely weighs anything anymore. She is become a frail old lady. She spends a lot of time napping - time well deserved after all these years. 

Our Brown Eyed Girl, loving cats the way she does, tries desperately to play with Cara. Our Brown Eyed Girl loves the fact that she can pick Cara up. She is so light. 

I of course cringe. Poor Cara.

Even in her old age, she is so patient, so kind.

A little old Lady.

I pray the kids don't torment her too much on Thursdays.