My Final Goodbye

Hi there furriends.   I think some of you may have already heard that I went to the Rainbow Bridge on Sunday August 5th. It was a bit sudden.   I seemed pretty darn normal for a 12 year old girl, then mom noticed I wasn't eating Friday morning.   She took me right in to the doctor and they ran tests.  When the doctor wanted to make an appt to discuss my results, we knew it wasn't good.   I was diagnosed with lymphoma and my red cells were so low there was no coming back from that.  Within 2 days I was crossing over.   

So, you may also know that I haven't been posting for a very long time.   I wanted to come back and say goodbye.   Mom says that the blog will not continue (it will be left up!) without me.

For those of you who don't remember how this all started, I'll go back.   When I was very young I used to sit on dad's computer.   I figured out how to open Notepad and type out words stuff on my own.   My mom quickly figured out that I had important stuff to say so she helped me start my blog.

I came to my home when I was a tiny kitten.  My momma Ellie and I were rescued in Tillamook Oregon by the nice people with United Paws of Tillamook.  This was me on my first day home, climbing Mount Foot.

I loved my momma Ellie more than anything in the world, except for maybe nursing.   I nursed until I was almost 5 months old!

My momma Ellie and I were so close.

My mom told me that I was very photogenic so with my writing and mom's photography the blog took off.  I made so many friends over the years and had such great adventures.

I love to sing.  Mostly to socks.   Mom and dad tried to get a recording of me, leaving a microphone out with socks placed nearby.   I didn't fall for it but the microphone was very tasty.   Mom did finally get a recording of me and it was posted on my blog on the post called Films on Friday

In addition to singing, I adored cheese.  Specifically Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar.   

My love for cheese inspired me to borrow hijack the Tillamook Cheese Bus and fly around the world in search of cheese with my boyfriend Whitey.  This is mom's favorite picture from that adventure when we were in Whiskersconsin.  The adventure, covered over a week's worth of posts starts with the Cory's Big Adventure post.

After Whitey went to the Rainbow Bridge, I found love again with Alfie.  When his family moved from Sidmouth to the Cotswolds, I again borrowed hijacked the Tillamook Cheese bus to help him move.

Sigh, such great adventures.  I had such a wonderful life.

I want you to know that I had a great last few weeks and months.  Here I am, still enjoying my dad's thick and wonderful socks.  They were always my favorite.

This picture was taken just a week before mom knew I was sick.

Momma Ellie and I still snuggling and enjoying life.

This picture below was taken 1 day before I left.   I was always forbidden to go in the front yard.  I was always so curious about it.   Mom let me go and explore.  I was a bit wobbly, but she stayed right with me.   I was too tired to stay out long but it was awesome.

And so it comes to this.  This was my last morning.  I was pretty weak and didn't move around much.  My momma Ellie washed me.  I went to the Rainbow Bridge with my ears freshly scrubbed with love.

So goodbye everyone, it's been awesome!  My blog will remain a comfort to my family as they remember the good times.  I hope my story and adventures brought you happiness.

Farewell Ginger

Hey there!  This is the last time you'll be getting the scoop from me.  Some of you may have already heard that I burned my candle down to the nubbins and I've run off to the Rainbow Bridge.   Since you know I like to dish all the dirt, I'll fill you in on exactly what happened to me.  But first I want to reflect on my time here with my family.  This picture above and below is shortly after I arrived here in September of 2007.

I was found in Jonesies garden, under one of the fruit trees.  I was trying to act casual and cool, but truth is I was starving.   I had been abandoned and I was clueless as to how to feed myself.   Mom and dad took me inside and gave me some food and I inhaled it!   I mean, so fast that mom had to take the food away since she thought I'd pop!   She promised I would get regular meals always and I believed her.   She was nice that way.

Well, they hauled me off to the v-e-t place to get checked out and the v-e-t that saw me declared me a healthy spayed female.  (clue...this becomes more interesting later on in my story).   Mom and dad did not care about my gender identity, just that I was a healthy kitty.  I didn't care either as long as I was getting 6 squares a day!   Because I was a bit furry back there in my nether regions, mom didn't question.

Mom was kind of funny and she tried naming me Frances.   I know...seriously.   I hated it and glared at her.   She got the message.  Still wondering what to call me, Mom and Dad went to the store and they bought gingersnap cookies.  As she pulled the cookies out of the bag she told me they were gingersnaps.   I perked up!  Gingersnaps she repeated.  I was really into it.  I don't know how many times she said it but finally she got around to just repeating Ginger.  I loved it!  So that is how I got my name.   I was smart enough to pick it myself.

My life here has been awesome.  The nip grows like crazy and I could always get my fill.

And whatever I wanted, I had it.  Turn on the water for me?  Yup.  I also had great fur siblings and the best furriends a cat could have with Madison and Cecilia.   

So now to my surprise reveal.  Most of my longtime friends remember, but if you are new here, I have quite the story, link posted here and my follow up post.   My health issues started up in 2011.  As a part of my evaluation, I saw a new and very smartypants v-e-t.   She checked me out...and really looked at my nether regions and then she called my mom.  Are you sitting down?  Yes.  Why? (figuring I might have a dread disease).  Then...Ginger is a boy. What?  Hysterical laughter followed at my expense.  I mean...I always knew it!   

However, this was serious stuff and the beginning of my health problems.   I had megacolon, which was later complicated by kidney disease.  Oh yeah and in my last year or so I started having seizures (you may remember me complaining of having aliens in my cute brains) and I also had neuropathy so my hind legs didn't work so well.   I was a mess.  A cute mess, but a mess.  Mom did everything she could to care for me.  Daily medications, watching me to figure out what was going in and coming out.  You know...but mom always said I was so sweet about everything.  It's true.  I knew that she was trying to help me.

Even in the end when my pooper just stopped working.  I purred at the v-e-t place and let them do whatever they needed to do to help me.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay any longer.   Both my mom and dad were with me as my favorite v-e-t person assisted.   I left this world exactly how Madison and Bennette left.  Sitting on my mom's lap, being told I was loved. Getting petted by Mom and Dad until I realized I wasn't there any more.

So how is it at The Bridge?   I'm no longer sick and I'm young again.  So many of my blogging furriends are here along with my fur siblings that I haven't seen since they transitioned.  

I also hear there is an opening for a gossip columnist for The  Bridge Gazette!  I'm going to apply!

Society of Feline Gardeners- Thursday in the Garden with Jonesie

Welcome furriends!

Life in my garden is not the same without my sister Bennette.  We are adjusting slowly, but in some ways we will never be the same.   It seems to be hitting our woofie Grete pretty hard.   She takes good care of us kitties and for her to lose one of us is devastating to her.   

I've not been doing much gardening yet this spring.   I'll probably be snoopervising planting at the end of May.   I've currently got 3 tomato plants that are in our super cool tent plus my herbs but that is about it for now.

The big deal is our deck project.   Dad discovered that our deck totally rotted out.   He couldn't let me set paw on it and fall through!    

So I'm keeping a watchful eye on his garden construction.

It's not as interesting as gardening and getting my paws dirty.   I stay away from noisy tools.

And when I get bored with it all, I snooze on the building materials.

Happy Birthday and Happy Mother's Day to Ellie

I know it's my birthday and Mother's Day.   I should be celebrating but I'm still having a hard time with losing my good friend and sister Bennette.

I am comforted knowing that she went to The Bridge with her ears scrubbed and all of our love and purrs.   She had so many furriends from around the world, human, feline and woofies too.

Here is a picture of us during our happy times together.

Purrs

Bennette's Farewell

Bennette left for the Rainbow Bridge on May 4th.   She had been ill for awhile, but it was still sudden  and a shock for us.

She wanted to say goodbye herself.

I came to my family at the very end of September in 2008.  This is how they first saw me.  I had made a nest in one of Jonesie's gardens.  I knew I was charming them because they started calling me Miss Got Milk because of my milk mustache.

On October 1st, I took advantage of a rare opportunity.   Grete, the new woofie at the time, was spending the night at the vet recovering from the first of her elbow surgeries.   With the coast clear, being the opportunist I was, I made my move.   It was my target's mom's birthday and while they were having dinner I knocked at the door.  Like a proper visitor.  They opened the door and I simply walked in.  Like I owned the place.   The best birthday present my mom ever received.

This next photo is about a week later after I had firmly established myself as a member of the family.   They shortened my name...Miss Got Milk to  G-Moo, a nickname that stuck with me always.   I was formerly named  Bennette, after another loved stray Benjamin.  Mom was fairly certain we were litter mates.

I established myself as totally in control and in charge.   Mom and dad said they had never met a cat who was so totally self aware and comfortable in her own fur.   Ha!  That was me!  Don't let this picture below fool you.  I liked to throw mild punches, but I adored my best friend Ellie. We were very close and were often sleeping together.   I always wished that Ellie was my mom.  I adored her giving me baths.

I was always willing to curl up and help my mom watch The Tour de France.   

I had a very kissable face.  

I had  8 of the best years of my life with my family.  I never did reveal how I became homeless so that part of my story will always be a mystery.  What I do know is that I chose my new family well.  We had the best of times together.  I was well loved.

Mancat Monday Memories

Hello dear furriends.   This is my last goodbye from The Bridge.

I had a nice long run here with my family and I made such good friends around the world.   All of your messages of comfort have been very helpful to my family.

I started out life as a baby kitten, born to a feral momma.  I was the sole survivor of my litter.  My momma kitty, Beacon, passed away when I was only 4 months old.   The lovely humans who raised me from day 1 are friends of my mom and dad.   That's how I found my forever family.  My original name was Grady.  Mom and dad changed it to Madison.

My daddy cat wasn't feral, so I grew up being a cross between and laid back kitty and a feral one.   In my early years, I would act all normal, like the picture above...or I'd totally freak out and hide over nothing at all.   This earned me the nickname Fearless Freep.   I totally lost my feral streak later in life.

One of my secrets is that I was almost never called Madison.   I had a series of nicknames over the course of my life because no one name really captured me.

There was a time early on in my mancathood where I got to be VERY big.  Like 18 pounds of me.  My head looked little on my body.  This earned me the nickname Akebono, after a famous sumo wrestler.   For most of my adult life I was about 16 pounds.   

I was always the first at the food dish.  Even in my old age, I was always first to dive in to the Fancy Feast.

I loved my Cecilia!   We have shared a special relationship and I know she will miss me terribly.

I had such fun with my blogosphere furriends.   I have special memories of the time we all got together in the Wienermobile and traveled to Porkopolis.  You can see me with my furriends and also Ellie, Nigel, Ginger and Cecilia who joined me for the fun.

While we were traveling, I wandered away from the group and got a tattoo!

I loved being in my garden.   I loved sleeping in the bushes on warm sunny days and hanging out on the deck, sometimes forgetting to put my tongue back in my mouth.

As I got older, I became deaf and I could only go in the garden when supervised.   Mom and dad are comforted by my July post where I was able to be out in the garden.   It was only in the last couple of months that I was totally restricted inside.  I never missed a meal.  Even though I was very sick in the end, I didn't pass up chicken baby food.  

Thank you all for being my furriends.  I will see you all again at The Bridge!

Fly Free Sweet Madison

Madison left for the Rainbow Bridge this morning.   He was 19 1/2 years old.

He had a very long and wonderful life.   On Saturday morning he was unable to stand on his own.   He spent 2 days under a lot of care and evaluation at the vet.   He was in acute renal failure, plus he had a whole list of other medical issues.   It was his time.

He left this world peacefully and in the arms of his mom and dad.

I will post more memories in the next week when I am up to it.

Happy Birthday Grete!

Hi!  What did you say? 

It's my Birthday?   I'm 9 years old?  Awesome!

Does that mean I get unlimited walkies and string cheese and chicken and...ball time?

Yes?!

Birthdays are awesome.   

Mancat Monday

Hi there!   It's been awhile since I've been able to say hi to everyone.   After some super hot weather, it's been really purrfect this past weekend.  That means I can get some outdoor time.

Since I'm an old guy, mom says if it's too hot or too cold, I must stay inside.  I can't handle extremes.

I know it's not fair, I can't handle extremes, but yet you are being subjected to my extreme cuteness.   

So...mom followed me around to make sure I was safe.   My whole family keeps tabs on me.   Can you see Cecilia keeping a close watch? 

Yup, turn around and Jonesie and Ginger are right there too.

Turn a bit more and there is Figaro.

I am loved.