In March 2002 we were given this female gray tabby cat through a friend of my wife. From the day we met her she accepted us as her family. The first night she moved into our home she slept on top of my wife. We took her into the Vet and had her checked out.
She was 3 years old and was the runt of a litter of eight kittens. Emily was not a large cat but very scrappy. In her life we moved two times and it was just another adventure for her each move. In our second house we lived in she would not allow another cat to even come into our yard. One time we saw her fighting with two cats from the neighborhood and ended up chasing them both all the way up the street.
While we lived at this second house a yellow tabby Tom was wandering the streets. We found out this feral cat was being fed by some neighbors a few houses down our street. These people moved out of our area. The Tom cat was named Jack, we found out later. We noticed Jack was acting very disturbed after these people moved. I believe he felt abandoned. We started feeding him on our back Lanai. Miss Emily seemed to like this feral cat. We kept feeding him and soon he was in the house and part of the family.
A couple years later we purchased our house we are now living in. The move was hard on Jack as he was the king of that old neighborhood. We waited until all of furniture was moved and final cleaning was done before we moved our two kids in carriers.
When we arrived we set the cats loose and Miss Emily strutted out of the carrier and made her self at home and immediately started exploring. Jack on the other hand just ran under our bed and stayed there for almost a couple of days. It took Jack a couple of weeks to adjust to our new house. He really loves the place now by the way.
These two cats were so different in personalities. Jack is so afraid of loud noises and runs under the house when there are fireworks or thunder while Mis Emily would go out onto the Lanai in the middle of a huge lightning and thunder storm and just look out at the rain and flashes and noise. She was fierce and strong.
A few years ago we had to have part of her tail removed because of a tumor. Then about a year ago we found a lump on her tummy. We took her to the vet and had it removed. They tested the tumor and it was a mamory gland type of cancer. A few months later another tumor developed on her and she had surgery again. This time the vet said she only had 6 months left.
We were so lucky to have such a wonderful cat in our lives. She made that transition on June 28th. We new it was getting close to time as she was getting uncomfortable and was loosing weight. The night before her last trip to the vet her brother who picked on her a lot slept next to her on our couch.
Brother giving comfort to sister.
That day I came home from work and we laid out on the entrance walk of our house with her for an hour before we took her to the vet. This was the hardest thing ever to have to do but we know in our hearts it had to be done. She was just hanging on for us. We now have a grave in our yard and will always remember this scrappy fierce little cat that brought so much into our lives. The 14 years she was with us will forever be remembered. RIP Miss Emily our best little girl cat.
