About Kaleidoscopic Aha!

I have Aha! moments everyday. They are kaleidoscopic - always full of color, shapes, and different ideas constantly in motion. I tell stories, write Affirmative Prayers, and share insights from my years of Life Experiences. My subjects are about Art, Meditation, Animals and Nature, Spirituality, the Other Worlds, Intuitive Readings, Numerology, Oracle and Tarot Cards, Shapeshifting, and more stories.  Some are informational essays that give an understanding of the stories themselves.

"I promise Something for Everyone. If there is a subject important to you missing, email me and I'll see what I can do."

Friday, December 31, 2010

The Story of Precious

As 2010 draws to a close, I decided to check in on the blog and my emails that come through this address. It’s been a while since I posted. So much has been happening and so little at the same time. Our landscape business has been good and then not good. Winter is usually challenging but we are holding on. When I am trying to keep a positive attitude, I don’t write as much, well not the kinds of things I write here but as I checked in, I found some really good messages from a certain writer I know – me! I reminded myself what I need to do when things are getting a bit too challenging.

For instance, I am going through some grief again. At this point I do not know if my closest friend is still with us. The last time I talked to her brother, they were taking it one day at a time. She has been fighting the fight against both breast cancer and bone cancer. After several different round of treatments she had decided to stop. I was away in Santa Fe for a week with my son and his girlfriend. I had called and spoken with her son once and her brother another time. Then I just didn’t want to know if the news was not good. And another matter that I wanted to avoid was happening too.

Thirteen and a half years ago, the family went to Kansas. We had Autumn who had 4 kittens and her feral mother, Monique mostly living on our front porch. We had a friend who was coming by to feed the cats and dogs and check on them. They were happier staying at home. Besides, no one could touch Monique and she was only inside with Autumn to protect and help with her kittens. Monique was a strange little cat. It felt like she had been tame at some point but abused severely. She couldn’t meow and as long as we didn’t try to touch her, she seemed okay closed inside the porch.

Monique looked like a British Short Hair variety – black, average body, with short legs and pointed feet. The day after we left for our trip, Monique had 4 kittens herself but the person taking care of her had no idea. She had them well hidden under the porch and not being able to get close to her, he didn’t realize that her body shape had changed from a little round tummy to a flat tummy.

Monique had been having two litters of kittens a year under our house. The first litter never appeared. When she would finally appear after the second litter, she would only have one kitten. The last was Autumn. Autumn was feral at first but it turned out her daddy was a Maine Coon and they just aren’t wild. We eventually got Autumn to let us handle her and then she went into heat and had 4 orange male kittens. The sire of her kittens was there. He was wild too and was waiting to kill the male kittens. Monique seemed to have had it happen before and she stayed right there ready to fight him if he came too close. When we boxed up Autumn and the newly born kittens to move her inside, Monique got in the box too. And that is how we got her to move inside, not knowing that she was pregnant too.

Her four kittens all looked like Siamese cats. We had noticed when she was in season that she liked to wait for this big Tom that looked Siamese. We called him Big Daddy. He wasn’t full blood because he had a very square looking head – not a true Siamese. But his colors and her body shape made for 4 apple headed kittens with seal points. Only one was male and he had some longer hair. Sadly, the long hair attracted fleas terribly and under the porch was not a very good environment. He began to fail. She didn’t know how to help him and she stopped nursing him. The 3 females were getting weaker too. I tried to help him. He was a fighter but he just couldn’t make it. Then the second one went. She was a beautiful one with huge eyes and more of a lilac point. A lady came along and wanted to try to save the largest one. It wasn’t a good idea but I wasn’t having any luck. I took the last one to the vet. He said she had flea anemia but if I could keep her alive for 48 hours, she would make it.

I kept her in a tiny shoebox by my face in the bed. I combed off the fleas as much as possible. I used an eyedropper and fed her formula with Super Blue Green algae and an egg in it. I would take her out to Monique but the mother wouldn’t try to nurse her for a while. She and Autumn would wash and massage her down and I would take her back inside and give her a couple of drops every hour or two. After a few hours and staying up all night – I felt like I did when my children were keeping me up all night – her tongue began to get some color in it again. Once she made it through the crisis, her mom began to nurse her again.

We could assume that what had been happening with Monique each year was that as a wild cat she had to leave her kittens to find food. Either the tomcats or other predators, like under the house rats, were getting her kittens. She would immediately go into heat again having the second litter in June each year. The fleas under the house in the dirt from the wild critters were getting her second litter. She would manage to save one. The one we helped her save became Precious. Precious was my baby and she considered me her mother. I had decided if I could catch Monique, I would get her spayed and after recovery let her continue to live under my house as a feral – but spayed – cat. Precious was going to be 8 weeks old on Monday. The flea anemia had slowed her growth but she was eating solid food. On Friday morning I went out to the porch to greet the cats as I always did and found Monique had died. I didn’t know why. “Doug, Monique is dead!” A strange little cat that was very intelligent had come and given us Autumn and Precious (and Chang, our other cat) and then she was gone.

Precious was a very sweet cat. She was a little slow. We attributed it to the lack of oxygen to her brain when she was little. She had tiny short legs like her mother and a small head but she got fat even before she was spayed. After the operation, she got even fatter. She was shaped like a basketball with legs. For many years she was good friends with Scully, another cat who decided to come live with us. We didn’t get Scully and Precious spayed for a long time finding out that if you don’t let them breed, they can get very sick. So when we had to spay Scully in an emergency we decided that we should take care of Precious too. The vet came back and said that Precious had some tumors and she wanted to send some tissues of to be tested. That would be another $60. I said, “No, if Precious gets worse, I will put her down. I won’t put her through expensive cancer treatment that may or may not work. Precious seems to be fine for now and we will take it one day at a time.”

After their surgeries, Scully wouldn’t have anything to do with the other cats. She was content being alone. Precious always needed to be close to another animal. She was tolerated by Chang who lived separately in the back of the house and sometimes she would spend time with him. We had and have a white dove. Precious seemed to think that bird was hers. After a few years we began to let Chang go outside. Precious would want to go and would follow him around doing what he did. In 2008, Chang stopped eating and then stopped drinking water. The vets don’t really know what causes this ailment and can only treated it with cortisone shots, steroids. After a while they don’t work anymore and the cats just waste away. I call it the wasting disease. Chang died on Memorial Day. Precious then decided to attach to out current dog, Sukie. Precious did not know she was a cat, did not know she wasn’t human, and certainly did not know that there was a difference in cats and dogs. Sukie is a sweetheart. They became close friends.
A few weeks ago 13 year old and 5 months Precious seemed to have had a stroke. I had a dog that had a stroke at 16 years old. He had one in the morning and by night had the second and died in my arms. I expected Precious would have another within 24 hours but she didn’t. In fact, she seemed to recover. She gradually got to where she could walk again, even jump and get in a chair (though getting down she kind of fell on her face), and was walking and running normally. She was eating somewhat normally and drinking water. Getting in and out of the litter box was a little difficult. Soon she began to get litter clumped up on her feet. I figured out that she was urinating on her feet or down her legs.

We had planned our trip to Santa Fe for Christmas. Precious began to show the symptoms of the wasting disease. I knew the vets were expensive and could only offer a cortisone shot. But I couldn’t cancel the trip. We had our friend Buzz to stay at the house but when we left I was very concerned that Precious was not going to be here when we returned. On Monday, Dec 27, Buzz called. She seemed to have had another stroke and was not able to walk on Sunday. When he got up, our sweet little precious Precious had left us. I had to come home to her not being here ever again.

I believe she lives on but her physical presence is missed. Sukie keeps looking for her like she did when Chang died. The other cats are trying but they just aren’t my baby girl Precious. She was a cute cat and 100% unconditional love. So here I honor and praise what she gave us. I love you Precious. I am sorry I could not fix the problem. Please forgive me. Thank you for all the love and joy you gave us and for just being you. Rest in Peace my little one. We miss your presence though I know you are wondering around here wanting me to pick you up. It’s a new relationship and eventually you will find you must go someplace else. You will always be welcome here though if you want to drop in from time to time.