Thinking of YOU!

Vito and Piggy on Thanksgiving.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, whichever you celebrate!

I am so thankful for you and your understanding. I get such joy from reading your blogs - we're all a bit nutty, I think, us 'cat people', and it's awesome to have such a great group to be nutty with! It's an amazing community out there, and I feel so lucky to know you and to be able to share in the love and happiness all of our pets give us. Thank you!

Sending love and warm thoughts from frosty NYC!

OXO

Allison

Proof of Ethereal Beings

Grover snuggling Piggy? Really? Really?

Last night, I was on the couch and Piggy was tucked under my arm, purring like a Mac truck and Grover jumped on the couch, squished his way under the same arm and started purring like the delicate Mac truck that he is. Wish I had a picture of that, but didn't want to disturb the Lurve-Fest.

Never in seven years of Piggy's life have I had both cats touching one another while pressed against me at the same time. And the sleeping together and constant snuggling, licking, chasing one another around playfully, eating next to one another, etc. never happened between these two, before.

I don't know what to make of it, other than Vito must have spread some magic dust around before he moved onto his next adventure.

Thank you, my baby bobcat. I miss the hell out of you.

P.S. If the snuggling between these two wasn't enough, watch this. Huh? Grover cleaning Piggy? Really? Really?

Ashes to ashes...

A few things happened yesterday when I found the strength to look in the "Gift Bag O' Vito" the vet gave me. I didn't see the ashes.

I've had two cats (Jade and Cheshire Cat) cremated in the past and both were returned to me in plastic bags stuck inside what appeared to be cheap candle tins from the 99 cent store.

But there was no plastic bag with Vito's ashes. What there was was a sealed wooden box with a picture frame on the front, mobile photo above.

I have a confession - when my cat Jade died 12 years ago (an icky tale - his vet asked me to give him a Valium before I moved from one city to another because Jade had a little heart murmur and the vet didn't want him to be stressed out. I gave it to him. It killed him. End of story.) I was (still am) so traumatized by his death that when his ashes came back I opened the little bag of what appeared to be crushed sea shells and I stuck my fingers into it.

Does this make me a total freak; or is someone else going to confess to the same sort of mourning behavior; because I'd rather not believe I'm the only one with this particular brand of crazy.

But with Vito, nope, no access to ashes, no sticking my fingers into the bag. There are screws on the bottom of the box, so I could get to the ashes if I wanted to, say, sprinkle them somewhere or bury them, or star in my very own re-enactment of that scene from Meet The Fockers.

For now, it stays sealed.

So, I get home with this Box O' Vito and try to decide where to put him. I let Grover and Piggy sniff the box but they were way too interested in it, which was sweet but inviting trouble, so I knew I had to put the box somewhere they never go, or it was going to get broken. And then I knew where to put it...way up on top of the armoire where Vito liked to ensure I could not turn on the ceiling fan.

(Yet again another crappy cell phone pic...I wish I'd taken more 'real' photos of Vito, but I had no idea I'd have so little time with him.)

When I got into bed last night (I put the plaster paw prints on the table near my bed), I kept thinking of those ashes up there on the armoire. I really, really, really wanted to go get them and take them to bed with me. I kept thinking about it and thinking about it, and then thinking some more about how this might look should I die in the night and was found cradling a box of ashes in my bed. But I still kept thinking about it - hell, my real friends would love me anyway if I were found that way, right?

Then, I realized if I were to do such a thing as get those ashes and cuddle them all night, it would be a slippery slope, and the next thing I might end up doing was putting on my wedding dress and sitting on the couch crying and eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's Pisctachio Pistachio ice cream while watching the Say Yes To The Dress marathon. And that would be really sad.

So I left his ashes where they were. For now...

OXO

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou

Mobile Photo - Vito's Paw Prints

Hi everyone:

Thank you so beyond words for your comments, emails, wisdom, love, prayers, understanding, etc., etc., etc. This community has awed me. Thank you seems like such an insignificant thing to say right now, but thank you.

I am slowly getting back to everyone, and it means so much to me to be able to do so, but it's taking me a while...thank you for your patience!

Today I picked up Vito's ashes and was given his pawprints. I had not known about it and was so shocked and surprised to see it. It made me laugh because my little bobcat was so small but had the most giant paws of any cat I've ever known. We'd joke that he'd been given the wrong feet! And it made me cry because my little bobcat didn't even get a chance to grow into those crazy-big paws.

I hesitate to say this as there isn't a 'nice' way to say it, but if ever you require, um, 'services' of the nature I required on the 27th, and you live in NYC, may I suggest http://www.nyc-vs.com/. The entire staff from the moment we walked in the door until the moment we left were amazing to us. The experience was non-clinical and as near to being beautiful as such a sad and tragic event could be. I had already mailed the vet a thank you card, but then today when I picked up Vito's ashes and yet again was confronted with understanding and affection from their staff, as well as receiving the above in a little cloth bag imprinted with cartoon cats, well, I feel like I need to send ANOTHER thank you card...that's how good these people were to us.

And that is how all of you made me feel, too - like I need to send each of you two thank you cards and let you know how much I appreciate you.

Thank you. Thank you.

OXO

Allison