I have a confession, I am a dog person. For many years I have owned several pooches, and boy do I love them. I am currently the proud owner of Lucy, a 13 year old Maltese. Lucy is a sweetheart, she loves people, though she is not very fond of other dogs. Lucy is going blind and deaf... at the same time. She is also having a tough time moving around because her hips are starting to bother her. Those things aside, she is in good health and she is an amazing companion. Nothing can replace my Lucy girl. That said, someone came along this weekend who is curling up in a little spot in my heart that I didn't know existed. The story of how that happened is a bit of an adventure... follow me to the other side of the odd squiggly thing for details.
About 6 weeks ago my girlfriend's coworker and very good friend, Ginny, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Ginny was like a mother to my girlfriend, an amazing woman who was loved by all. In my short time of knowing her, I found her to be quite the pistol, not afraid to speak her mind and just an all around happy person. Ginny was an animal lover too, she would feed a stray outside her office every day, and she too was a dog owner. Unfortunately at the young age of 59, Ginny lost her short but determined battle with cancer this week. Friday afternoon my girlfriend and I attended her funeral service followed by a tribute given for her by her coworkers at a brand new long term care facility that she contributed to building. It was a fitting tribute... the lake behind the facility was named Lake Ginny in her honor, and we did our best to honor a lovely woman. Now I know I seem to be off on a tangent, but bear with me, you will understand why I included this anecdote in a moment.
As my girlfriend and I left the tribute the rain began to fall heavily. We drove along US 441 (a 6 lane highway) and I began to get into the left turn lane. I noticed a car stopped in the lane next to me with its hazard lights flashing... just ahead of the car was some sort of animal in the road. I assumed it was dead, it didn't appear to move at first, and as I passed it, it looked like a kitten. Well I was sort of right, it was a kitten, but it was far from dead. I looked in my rear view mirror as the person that got out of the other car got close to it... ZIP kitty takes off! Now here is the part where my heart stops... it took off into traffic! I almost died watching it shoot across 3 lanes of traffic... most of the cars were doing about 60 mph. The kitty approached a white van that slowed down when he saw the cat, too late, kitty smacked the bottom of the van (but thankfully missed the tires). Kitty plopped down on the ground in the middle of the lane. At this point I am thinking it is a goner. I am staring helplessly through my rearview, then suddenly it springs up again and zips through another lane to the side of the road. At this point my girlfriend is begging me to do something... she's right, I can't just let the poor kitten die on the side of the road in the rain, so I pull a quick U turn and head back to find kitty.
Picture this if you will... I am wearing a sport jacket, slacks and a tie, my girlfriend is in a very pretty black dress with a jacket an high heels. We get out of my car in the pouring rain and begin to search the side of the road where we think we saw the kitty run to. There is an embankment that runs down to a now filling drainage ditch. I am on one side of the roughly 6 inches of water, and my girlfriend is on the other... after about 5 minutes of searching I find it. Crouched down in the grass, soaking wet and scared to death. I notice her ear is ripped and bleeding. I slowly approach it and as I reach out... HISS... I flinch... it bolts for the water. Now I freak because I know for sure that kitty is gonna drown. The water is cold and too deep for it. Damn it, I'm gonna have to wade in there with my expensive leather shoes... whatever, i can't let it drown... but then it starts to swim (cats can swim, who knew?) straight tword my girlfriend on the other side of the water and makes it to the other side. My girlfriend then takes her brand new jacket and puts it over scared/wet kitty. Yay! she has it! We hop in my car and head straight for a close by animal hospital. We figure out that the kitty is a she, not an it ;-) We make a decision there and then that her name is Ginny (no brainer). We took her to the vet, where after keeping her over night, she got some stitches in her ear and had to cough some water out of her lungs, beyond that a clean bill of health. I still can't believe she wasn't squished out there, or doesn't have any broken bones. Nope, just a few scratches but in good shape.
I should add something about here... I am VERY allergic to cats... have been for as long as I can remember. I am not keen on keeping a cat. My thought is to give her away or put her up for adoption. Now, I'm not so sure. You see we brought her home yesterday, and I'll be damned if she isn't the cutest crooked eared little thing. She is simply amazing... she has such a good nature, she loves to be held and petted and has yet to scratch or bite either of us. She purrs like a motorboat when you rub her neck and damn it... I think I may just end up with a cat after years of being a dog person.
So there it is, I'm sorry it is a bit long winded, but I knew this was the only place I could come to tell my first pootie story. Oh, and of course I will include pictures of her... Enjoy!
8:15 PM PT: Obligatory thank you for putting me on the rec list!
I was away cuddling with Ginny and came back to find out that you like me... you really really like me ;-) BTW, she is such a sweetheart, she loves to fall asleep when we hold her, that is of course when she finishes purring :-)