My 38th Birthday!

I am overwhelmed by the kindness you all showed me on the 38th anniversary of my birth, on Saturday. I receved numerous gifts and notes and I read ever one of them.

The one thing that all this reminds me of is this: Catster has fleas and is scaring us to death because they are mixing up diaries so we think our pals have bad health when they really don't. And Catster is telling us who comments on what and we don't care.

BUT, Catster is also how we all "met" each other, and for me, Catster came along about 10 years after I had gone to the Bridge. So I am still relevant to you, because my Mom has told you about me and you all know what a sweetie I was. And that's because of Catster.

SO, as frustrating and nonresponsive to our needs that Catster seems to be right now, we will always love the Catster we ran across 5 years ago. And we will always treasure all our Catster pals.

Thank you again for all the love we receive daily from you all.

37 years

I was born 37 years ago today. I came to live with my Mom when I was 3 months old. She had never had a kitty before. She took good care of me, and we traveled together and had a ball.

I especially loved it when we moved to Hawaii. It was always warm there, and I never got a chill like I did in Illinois and California.

When Mom said we were gonna move back to the Mainland, I decided to stay in Hawaii. So I left for the Rainbow Bridge, and my little body stayed in Hawaii forever.

I was with Mom 23.5 years, and I am sure glad I found her! Mom was even more lucky to find me!

Are girls supposed to admit that they're 37?

I'm a Daily Diary Pick!?!

Thank you, HQ! I am very surprised to be selected, but I think it is a great honor for all of us angels!

Woo-Hoo!

*runs off to celebrate with Scooter and Tooney and Simon and Alaidh and Missy, and her best buddy, Spunky, while wiping tears of joy from her eyes*

My anniversary and a very busy Bridge

It is 13 years today that I traveled to the Bridge. The past two weeks have been the busiest I have spent up here. You see. I am on the greeting committee.

First Scooter arrived. I have never seen such a mob scene before. That girl is POPular!, But she has her cranky moments.

Then came Tooney. He is a little mad that he can’t sit on his Daddy’s shoulder anymore.

Next, along came Simon. He’s a little peeved that he couldn’t meet Scootie’s Mom. He was really looking forward to that meeting.

Pretty soon Alaidh was here and she was kind of tired, and laid down for a nap as soon as she got here.

And lastly, Missy showed up, TOTALLY unannounced. But she was more than a little angry that she didn’t get a nice quiet good-bye with her family like everyone else did.

You see, the Rainbow Bridge is a place where we are still ourselves, but you can’t see us. And BOY! Do we ever understand that separation is not what you want; we hate it, too.

My Mom had, and lost, an old pet: ME! Mom got me when she was 22 and I died when she was 45. She loved me very much and I was the undisputed Queen of the house. People feared for Mom’s health when I died.

Holding my lifeless body was a real revelation to Mom. The little being that she adored so and loved with all her heart was GONE. And the little body she held was NOT me. So my body was buried in Hawaii, and I, the REAL Boomer, went to live in her heart.

But she remembers very well the week leading up to and the first few months after I died. She was a wreck and was practically a recluse. She realizes now that to react any other way would be very odd. The loss of her companion of 23 years merited that response.

A few months went by, and Mom found that she had a kitty shaped hole in her heart. My spirit lived there, but I wasn’t purring, and no cat person can tolerate too long a time period without purring.

So she looked and looked at kittens. She was looking for a successor to the Queen. I was definitely NOT replaceable. But she thought I was such an extraordinary girl that I DESERVED a successor.

She looked for a boy, because she didn't want him to have to be the delicate little girl I was. And she looked at any color but black and white, because I was black and white. She missed out on the adoption of a few, but finally found a little fellow she thought she could live with. She named him Leonard.

About half way thru the first week, Leonard began coughing and was taken to the vet. He was critically ill and Mom was immediately caught up in trying to save him. And she did. During the struggle she realized that she had his name wrong. He was always fighting taking the medicine and saying "AR!" to her. So she changed his name to Arnold, in honor of her favorite golf hero.

Mom adores Arnold. In some ways, her relationship with him is different and maybe even better than the one with me. Because Mom is older and has essentially no expectations of him, everything he does amuses her. She expected me to behave in certain ways because I was her first cat. She doesn’t expect anything of Arnold. She’s so much more mature now!

And the kitty shaped hole in her heart is full to overflowing. She hasn’t forgotten me and even regaled a friend with stories about me just the other day.

And Scooter, even though she is sometimes cranky, is the sweetest girl kit I have ever met. She clearly was the Queen of Albuquerque.

And it is no wonder Tooney’s Daddy loved him so much. He is a precious boy.

And Simon was disappointed to not meet Scootie’s Mom, but he is the gentlest of souls.

And by the time I turned around, Alaidh was gone from sight after a brief nap, and then I heard she had already cornered a dino! What a mighty hunter that girl is!

And Missy was mad about crossing so unexpectedly, but immediately wrote all the cool thing about herself down so that Tyler wouldn’t ever forget her. What a great sister!

Mom is so grateful for Catster. If it were not for this place, very few people would know about me and my remarkable life. But here I am celebrating what would normally be a very sad day. Sad, because I am gone from her life, but a celebration because I live on in her heart and have many wonderful friends to wait with until I see Mom again.

Thank you all for loving my Mom and taking care of her and Arnold for me! I will take care of your babies for you!

There's a new picture on my page.

And it's not of ME!

I was the guardian angel of a wonderful kitty boy named Spunky.

Spunky was a very brave boy who had chemo for cancer in his eye area. He was losing his battle with cancer around Thanksgiving and his Mawmee and Daddy did the best thing for him. He came to stay with me at the Bridge.

Mom was proud of me for being a good guardian angel and she asked Spunky's Mawmee if we could have a copy of a particularly angelic picture of Spunky that she loved so much. He was exceptionally handsome in this picture. And his Mawmee said we COULD have a copy.

It came in the mail and Mom framed it in a really handsome pewter frame. It is sitting on her dresser, right across from the pictures of ME! We stare at each other all day and all night! Only now, here at the Bridge, Spunky has TWO eyes! I wish I could send his Mawmee a picture of THAT!

We love you, Spunky!

I'm in a CONTEST!

Mom entered me in the Coolest Cat contest, because she says I was the Coolest Cat EVER! I don't know about that, but I think it will be fun, and a fun way to commemorate my 36th birthday!

I hope her heart doesn't get broken if I don't win. But I don't think it will, because she already knows how maximally cool I was, even if everyone else doesn't!

Here's my vote page: http://www.catster.com/show08/vote_pet.php?i=283082

Thank you for looking!

12 years at the Bridge

Today is my 12 year Bridge anniversary. I can't believe I have been gone from Mom so long. Time really flies here at the Bridge, because there is so much fun stuff to do here.

I was always a very happy girl. Even after I had my thyroid out at age 17, I still was happy. After the operation, I started making a funny noise. The vet came to my house to listen to me. He listened for about one second and said: "I damaged her recurrent laryngeal nerve." My WHAT? And if it's recurrent, won't it come back?

So, the noise I was making was purring! I could only do it on the exhale, and it sounded WEIRD, even to me. But I was happy, so I had to purr!

The sound was so weird, that Mom recorded it. Tonight, she put the sound on my page. We're having a little trouble with the player, (It works best if you push 'play', then pull the button all the way to the end. When it resets to the beginning, it plays perfectly!) but it really is me, in a 15 year old recording.

Check me out! And thank you to all of you, and to Catster. I know you all love me, and that never would have happened without Catster.

If I'm at the Bridge, is it still my Birthday?

If I hadn't gone to the Bridge 11 years ago, I would be 35 years old today. 35!

It's a good thing kitties don't live that long. My poor body wouldn't have made it, although my spirit was young.

At the Bridge, I have a young boyfriend (WallyA) and I can see Mom play with Arnold. He needed a home, so I had to make room for him. I certainly couldn't have lived WITH him! Boys!

So I guess if Mom remembers, I AM 35. I may not live on earth, but I know I live on in Mom's heart.

35?

This month marks the 35th anniversary of my birth. I've been gone from Mom for almost 12 years.

My final resting place is a hill high in the mountains over Honolulu, overlooking the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific, and downtown Honolulu, and the Honolulu International Airport, and of course, the ocean. It is a beautiful place, and I spent many happy days here. Now it is where I rest.

Mom visits me whenever she comes to Hawaii. A red hibiscus bush marks my grave.

In the world I lived in (the world of 1972-1996), no one but Mom would know where my final resting place was. But this is the internet and the Catster world. So now, a bunch of my friends know, too!

I love Catster.

An Angel Can Play Tag?

Well, now I have been tagged, so I have to tell 7 secrets about myself. Here goes:

1.) I climbed walls as a youngster.

2.) I think Arnold is the best successor I could ever have had. Mom picked a peach in that boy! He makes me proud every day.

3.) I was Mom's second cat. The first died of distemper 2 days after she got it.

4.) Until I lost my voice due to thyroid surgery at 17, I had a MUCH louder cry than Arnold.

5.) I perfected selective shedding. I shed black hair on Mom's white uniforms, and white hairs on her black uniforms when she was in the Navy.

6.) I had a good friend in Hawaii who took care of me while Mom was in school. She loved me very much, and I loved her too! She helped me send cards and notes to Mom.

7.) I was wrongly convicted, and jailed for four months in Hawaii. Mom and I called it kitty prison, but the Hawaiians called it "quarantine".

Now, I tag:

Wally Angel
Biscuit
Bill
Navin
Shamus
Jake
Tooney