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As I mentioned in the post that prefaced this series (HERE), I had cats (and a dog) growing up, but as I got older with work and a family we avoided pets. A few months after J and I got together, we were actually both working an early shift one Saturday just before my birthday and we decided to go over to Pets Mart right by work and take a look at the animals - specifically the cats. I'm not sure why we did it, we had no intention of getting one - I suppose it was just one of those silly things that people in love do.
This particular store had a large assortment of young cats from a local shelter on display and they were actually all out of their cages as the women from the shelter were there cleaning. There must have been at least 10 or 12 very young cats - really almost kittens - playing around and we watched them for a couple of minutes when something caught our eye. Over on the far end of the room, underneath the cages, was an older cat all by herself. Frankly she looked more than a bit unfriendly and definitely seemed to be less than amused to have all of those young cats running around. J and I watched her for a few minutes, before we moved on and looked around the rest of the store.
For the next few days, nothing much was said, but on the day before my birthday J and I got to talking. Now this was before we had bought our house - we were looking, but M, P, and I were still living in the townhouse - although while J was still renting her house, she had more or less moved in with me. Well as I said, J and I started talking about going back to see if that older cat was still at Pets Mart. We checked our lease and saw we could have two animals provided we paid a pet deposit ($50 I believe). I (and J) really wanted her, so we checked with M who was cool with it, so J and I went over there and she was still there and still just as unhappy looking. As it was, the ladies were there cleaning the cages again, and the older cat - by now we knew her name was Emily - was back under the cages by herself. We purchased the things we would need (food, litter, litter box, some toys, and such) and took care of the adoption. Once we did a young employee went to go get Emily. Well he couldn't get her out from under the cage - every time he reached for her she swiped at him and she still had her claws so he decided to get a broom to "poke" her out. That wasn't going well either, and finally one of the ladies cleaning the cages realized what was going on and coaxed Emily out.
The first few days after we brought her home she mostly hid under M's bed. It was so bad I'd go find her and bring her down to eat and introduce her to her little box. After a few days she started to explore a bit and seemed more at home with everybody.
Now some background on Emily - when we got her she was 8 years old and had always lived in a home. The woman who gave her up did so because a grand-child was allergic to cats. She was very well behaved - she would NOT get on furniture and we had no issues with her using her litter box. Our biggest concern was getting her to eat as she was very skinny as shelter cats tend to be, but she started warming up to us and me in particular and got better about eating. Now I think I helped warm her up to me via food. At the time I was working my regular job and then at Wal-Mart part-time saving for the house. On those Wal-Mart nights I'd get off work and have time to come home and change and head to WM to work and wouldn't get off until usually 11pm (I was a CSM at the time and that's when the overnight CSM's would come in). On those nights, I often had White Castle for dinner since it was open late and only a couple of minutes from where we lived. Well Emily took a liking to the White Castles - to the point where I'd order an extra burger or two for her and tear the meat up into small pieces. Probably not the best thing in the world for her, but she really liked them and they seemed to make her happy. She also took a liking to tuna, but not so much the meat itself, but rather the water it was in - so much so that we got to the point of making her "tuna soup" where we'd empty the tuna into a dish, add some more water and stir it up. She'd drink all the water and almost always leave the tuna.
This is one of my favorite photos, it was about a year and a half after we moved into the house so she was about 10 at the time - she's the one in the middle (Boots - cat #2 is on the left, and Francis - cat #3 is on the right) - it's probably one of the few times that Emily and Boots got along - we had the windows open and birds were chirping.
As time went by in the townhouse we had a few interesting moments. We lived right on the edge of the "lake" there and ducks would come to our door (which we fed). Well Emily never had a desire to go outside, but when we'd open the door to feed the ducks she'd stalk the door like she thought she would catch one. It was so very cute.
Probably my favorite moment early on was when we moved - we still just had Emily - and I decided to bring her to the house myself one evening and I decided to let her ride loose in the car (bad idea in hindsight I know). She did not take the ride well - she cried for a few minutes (it's about 30-40 minutes from the townhouse to where we live now), and then hid in the back seat. But once we turned her loose in the house she was ecstatic - she had all sorts of rooms to explore.
She has (well really had) a habit of sleeping with her paw over her eyes. We call it her "hungover" pose.
As far as the other cats, she pretty much ignores them, although she has a love-hate relationship with Boots (cat #2). That's actually the reason we got Francis (cat #3) - we thought she'd be a playmate for Boots and keep him from pestering Emily. It worked somewhat, but they still rumbled on occasion - like this:
One of our favorite things about her is that she "hunts" socks. She's an incredibly quiet cat - EXCEPT - when she goes and gets a sock - usually M or M2's - and starts bringing it down the hall. She gets very loud and stays that way until somebody acknowledges her. Now it's funny, if you spot her with the sock before she's ready to announce it herself she'll drop it and walk off. At first we thought it was a maternal thing, but now we tend to think she's hunting for us and bringing us "dinner". Regardless, it's incredibly cute. There are some days that we'll go out into the hall or downstairs to the family room and see literally 10-12 socks lying there. Ironically enough I just had to stop typing this and go acknowledge yet another sock. :) As luck would have it I just ran across a picture of her "sock haul" one morning.
Over the years she's "turned into a real cat" as we like to say. She'll now get on the couch on occasion or one of the beds. She will now beg for food on occasion as well. But my favorite is that she seems to have radar - almost every night without fail, as soon as I lie down in bed she comes in and climbs up next to me so I can scratch her head and back. Some nights it's for a minutes or two, others it's for 10-15 minutes. If you get just the right spot(s) she'll have what we like to call a "cat-gasm" and start frantically licking the bed, the carpet, your hand, or whatever else she can get to. But like most cats, once she's done - well she's done. Another of my favorites was when she'd attack her own tail - she would get so angry at it, it made us all smile.
As I type this she's about 16 years old and time has gotten the better of her. Her sight seems to be mostly gone. She still gets around really well, but we often have to help her find the food for example. She tends to sleep downstairs now so she doesn't have to climb the steps as much, although she still "tucks me in" almost every night. Her and Boots don't fight very often, although a couple of times recently she's made us laugh as we'll see Boots running down the hall and here Emily comes behind him, kind of trotting like Pepe Le Pew does in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.
I'm not sure if she'll be the first one to pass - I'm afraid it may well be Sampson (Cat #4). But as much as I love them all, I think when she passes it will hit me harder than any of the others. Partially because she was our first adoption, partially because she always seemed to be "my cat", but mostly because she's what inspired us to adopt the others - without her, several other cats might not have found homes.
Regardless, I'll always cherish every day we have had together and every day we have left and with that I'll part with one final picture of my baby.
That's one of my favorite shots of her. We love you Emily...
- M
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