I had a cat who came with me from Canada when I moved back here to work. Efrat was a redhead, with green eyes, freckles, and a temper to match. She was a one-person cat and I was that one person. We loved each other fiercely even though we annoyed each other, as roommates are wont to do. She lived to be 17 ½, but died just before she would have been old enough to vote (but, given that we didn’t have her birth certificate as she had been adopted from a kitty orphanage, she had never had a visa to stay in the US, hadn’t worked a day in her life so wasn’t eligible for her own green card, and most importantly, she was a cat, we weren’t expecting her to be able to do so.
She died on the day of the Pennsylvania primary of 2008 and I remember posting a diary about why I didn’t care about politics that night. The very last comment on that diary was from anncetera, who commented that she had three orange kittens that had just been given to her for fostering, and she was only 3 hours away from me. I thought I wanted two — certainly three were beyond me. I didn’t want a boy, just the two girls. but just in case I bought three carriers and went to visit them, walking out with the triplets.
Over the years, Daily Kos has been such an important community for me — sympathy and support when I was diagnosed with cancer and depression, people who read and like the diaries I write, friends here and those who have wandered off the screen into my “meat space” (does anyone use that term anymore?) as well. But 24 hours a day I am reminded by my wonderful companions how much the community has meant for me.
I don’t have pictures of my triplets with the various pootie pads they have received from me and from my brother over the years. I am usually laughing too hard at them to remember to get the camera. But the triplets love them and when they stop thinking about themselves long enough (they are, after all, cats), they do tell me that every cat in the world should have at least one. That I why we have signed up as sponsors for the Kickstarter campaign for Pootie Pads, and you should too. I would love to try the soothing ones for humans, but I do have priorities (we have priorities) and humans are not at the top of the list.
Imeny is my favourite, in spite of my pledge to not pick a favourite. He cares for me, and watches over me. I love all of them very deeply, and they are the friendliest, best cats I have ever known.
So I have pledged for me and for the triplets But who have come to me from DailyKos. They bring me joy daily.
And frustration. Always frustration!