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EACH LEAF REPRESENTS A MEMORY, JOURNEY, INSIGHT, MIRACLE OR REFLECTION: |
I was not especially a cat lover per
say, I love most animals and cats were my least favorite. I didn’t dislike them
nor was I allergic to them. I grew up with cats and my sisters and I would
dress them up in our doll clothes and put a doll bottle in their mouth and haul
them around in a doll buggy. Thinking about this treatment now, I realized the
cats must not have been especially thrilled with this kind of fun. Growing up
with cats and dogs, our cats just came around and also went without much
thought. At that time we were not required to have them spayed or neutered. Mom
mostly kept them around to serve the purpose to rid mice from coming into the
house.
After leaving home and receiving my MRS.
Degree, we moved around a lot and then spent 4 years in the military; acquired
a female dog while living in Hawaii, but not a cat. Once we settled down and lived in a house,
soon after that came a baby boy. My mom gave us a female toy poodle and we
became a family of 2 dogs, 1 large horse with 1 small baby boy. Over the years
I had 2 girls but no cats. Once in a while the girls would drag a cat home,
begging to keep it; I soon learned you needed to have these stray cats spayed. But
still I never learned to bond to these cats like I did to the other animals.
When I married the 2nd time,
my husband didn’t especially care for cats, so when we had a kitty it was
mostly considered an outside cat. This
was my life for quite a few years until one faithful day our neighbor’s mother
cat had a litter of babies. The mother
cat was just a run of the mill calico or multi colored. (first off, what is a
calico cat? A calico cat is not breed of cat, it is a color pattern. To be
called “calico”, three colors must be
present: black, white and orange
(Carmel). Now that a calico cat has been
defined as a cat with three colors, the question is: why are they nearly always
female? The answer is in genetics, coat color in cats is a sex-linked trait.
The genetic coding for displaying black or orange is found on the X chromosome.
This mother cat had 2 kittens left; one was a gray tabby and the other a
gorgeous calico. Both females. They were
caught running around our yard and scampering up the trees. One day we were outside saying goodbye to
some family members, when both out of curiosity came to see what we were
doing. For some reason, I wanted to keep
the calico. I then talked to my husband about keeping her, upon hearing me
talking to my husband my grandchildren could not wait to talk to the lady who
owned them about getting one. I found
out that they were also Manx cats, one with no tail. Manx breed originated on
the Isle of Man, hence the name, where it is called stubbing or kayt Manninagh
in the Manx language. They are an old breed. And taillessness arises from a
genetic mutation that became common on the island as long as two or three
hundred years ago. The hind legs of a Manx are longer than the front legs,
creating a continuous arch from shoulders to rump giving the cat a rounded
appearance. They have beautiful soft coats of fur due to many layers of hair.
“WHEN MOTHER NATURE SAW FIT TO REMOVE THE TAIL
OF THE MANX, SHE LEFT, IN PLACE OF THE TAIL, MORE CAT.” …Mary E. Stewart..
I named her ‘MISCHIEF” found out Manx
kittens are very intelligent, sometimes being more dog like than a cat. She
learned to get the dog out of her bed and would quickly slip into it, leaving
the dog just wondering what the heck had just taken place. Mischief would never show her claws or hiss
at the dog, she was smart enough to get what she wanted. I soon bonded to
Mischief and let her stay in the house if she wanted and she quickly became a part
of the family. I found a Vet and had her
spayed and caught up on her shots. One day I seen her walking toward the field
in the back yard where she liked to go and check on mice or gophers…..she never
came back. I spent a lot of time looking and calling her name, but she just
wasn’t around. It took me a long time to
get over losing her as she was a special kitty, very unique and I loved her.
In some ways I never completely got over
Mischief and knew if I had another chance to get another Manx cat, I would. I
browsed on the internet looking for a chance to find one, to no avail. Looking
on Craig's list and every animal shelter with the possibility of finding
one. A couple of years later, my
daughter-in-law was down in the field when she saw something moving, upon
investigating, found it was a black Mother Manx cat about ready to give
birth. She had been alone for long time
as she was so thin you could see her veins in her feet and her ribs sticking
out…and her belly full of little ones. We took her to see a Vet to find out her
exact condition, and it was not good.
She was very mal- nurtured and had ring worm to an extreme. The Vet
indicated she was close to giving birth and may not make it because of her
condition. We immediately went and found
cat food that had tons of protein and nutrients to try and build up her system,
made a bed for her in the bath room and kept an eye on her. The mother cat had a
very good disposition and let us takes care of her without getting too
upset. When it was time for her to
deliver, she had 6 babies, 2 were Manx. Both were gray and had the 6 toes. It
was difficult for her to keep up with the nursing as they grew because she was
so thin. We began to help out with the feeding and supplemented where we could.
One of the little gray Manx kittens
didn’t seem to be growing and I soon realized he wasn’t strong enough to fight
the others for his share. I separated him and would put the mom
in with him. He still didn’t seem to be growing, so I began to supplement him
with kitty food soaked in water or milk.
When they were about 7 weeks old, he was so small he fit in the palm of
my hand and the rest were running and playing all over the garage. I would go
over to the garage and feed them before going to work and he would just cry and
cry, following me over the entire garage. While at work one day, I could hear
him crying in my mind and that sound would not leave. When I arrived home I
checked on the kittens, fed them and left to go into the house. I told my
husband about what had happened at work and said that I believed it was meant
for us to keep him. I named him Ralphe
and put him in a play pen on the patio.
At night I kept him in my bathroom with food and water. He still did not
seem to be doing well, crying all the time.
We once again found a Vet close to where we lived and took Raphe to her.
When she picked him up and held him her comment was “Oh my”. It did not sound
good and I felt a lump in my throat. I knew it wasn’t good. My husband asked
her if we needed to have him put down and she looked at me with tears in my
eyes and said we will see what we can do.
He was so thin at 8 weeks old that she needed to put him on a special
scale to weigh him. She did what they
called a reverse feeding, feeding him a cat milk supplement every two hours. We
left him there for 2 weeks and she only charged us only $50.00. I could not
believe how generous she was, it was a miracle. When we went to pick him up and
bring him home, she mentioned that if we got to the point where we couldn’t
afford to keep him, she would love to take him and keep him there. That was not even an option…he was coming
home with us!! Ralphe started to grow in leaps and bounds and would often come
when I was sitting on the couch and curl up in my arms with so much love. He
had the run of the house and stayed in the bathroom at night without crying, it
was so awesome to have him so content and happy. At first we kept him in a cage on
the patio to catch the sun and warmth. He loved being outdoors, so I soon let
him out while we out doing yard work or just enjoying the patio. He stayed and
I would see him chasing butterflies or bees or anything that moved. He was
fascinated by humming birds but just chose to watch them his mouth twitching,
so funny to watch.
As the summer passed he grew into a beautiful handsome cat.
He was so curious and would follow me around the house watching what I was
doing. One day I was doing my laundry and he followed me into the laundry room,
I was aware he was there and wasn’t concerned.
I have a front load washing machine and when I finished putting the
clothes in, I turned on the machine and left the room. I had gotten very far, where I heard this
terrible thump, thump coming from the laundry room. I immediately knew what had happened,
couldn’t get to the machine fast enough to let him out. I quickly grabbed him
and grabbed a towel and proceeded to dry him off. I now had rescued him for the third time. I
can smile about the washing machine incident now, but it was pretty scary at
the time.When it came time to have him neutered and his shots, back to the same Vet we went. All the personnel in the office were so glad to see how handsome he had become and friendly he was. I had the Vet put in a micro -chip besides the other services just In case what happened to Mischief would not happen to him. My love for him grew and grew as he got older, he was a big tease, watching me
whenever I would go into the room I have my computer and run like crazy to beat me to the chair, jump into the chair and dare me to sit down. We have an older outside cat with a tail and he was totally awed by her tail. When she was drinking water or just laying around sunning herself, he would go behind and play with her tail and run like crazy to the nearest bush. It brought us to laughter watching his antics; he was so fun to have around. One day during the summer after church, I let him outside to go for a couple of hours, something I did all the time. He never came back, I stayed up all night waiting from him, and he never, never ever did this. His routine was to go and get done what he needed and would come in and eat and stay for the night. My heart was broken and I still feel tears when I think of him. We are pretty sure he was killed by somebody who didn’t like cats. I don’t know if I will want another inside kitty, get too attached to them. It has taken me a long time to stop looking for him to come to the back door to want in.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM RALPHE:
WE ARE ALL UNIQUE AND HAVE SOMETHING SPECIAL TO OFFER OTHERS:
WE NEED TO BOND TO OTHERS BEFORE WE CAN HAVE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS:
LOVE IS THE GLUE THAT BINDS US AND WE WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
BY THOSE WHO LOVED US OR WHO WE LOVED:
IT IS BETTER TO LOVE AND LOST THAN NEVER TO HAVE LOVED AT
ALL:
TRUST IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFTS THAT IS GIVEN TO US FROM OTHERS:
RALPHE WAS A MIRACLE IN SO MANY WAYS, WITH THE HELP FROM SO MANY:
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