A difficult time for dad.

It's a tricky time for dad. Happy and sad anniversaries at once. Ten years ago my dad was forced to have his fine, handsome, intelligent, loving cat, who was his closest friend (due to his twoleg best friend dying two weeks earlier) sent to the bridge because of the beastly and evil FeLV virus.

Since then, I have spent the last decade roaming this bridge area without him. I've made lots of friends here, but I miss curling up with dad at night and sleeping snuggly with his hand on my side.

Don't get too upset, because there's a happy part to this time of year as well! At about the same time of my assisted departure, elsewhere in sunny Chula Vista, California a fine queen gave birth to a litter of the most adorable kittens. These kittens soon found themselves in a private shelter, and up for adoption when they were a mere 8 weeks of age.

On a saturday, Dad happened to be in the Chula Vista Petsmart and saw these fine kittens. He looked them over and there was a lovely gray tabby, but it was a girl and he wanted a tom. In fact there was an identical tom, and dad took this little fine fuzzy fellow home, to help him cope with the sadness of being without my esteemed self.

This is how it comes to be that the middle of March is my Bridgeday and Xander's Birthday. It's sad to memorialize my loss, but happy that Xander came into the world, because he's a fine tom, a big fuzzy galoot that dad enjoys rubbing vigorously. Sometimes even though many years are passed, he will occasionally accidentally call Xand "Bill" which starts him feeling sad again.

Ten year anniversery. Be nice to my dad if you see him. He's sad, and happy too.

Bill

Christmas Tagging

Well, my good friend Snipper tagged me with the Christmas tag. I don't believe in tagging myself, so I won't be tagging anyone back. But I don't mind listing five Christmas wishes!

1- I hope dad gets a better paying job.
2- I don't want Xander joining me up here for a long long time!
3- I hope the Chinese people quit shipping poison toys and food and pet products to the rest of the worldd.
4- I hope that some clever twoleg comes up with a cure for FeLV and FIV.
5- I'd like to see Catster either stop the animated ads that cause computers to lock up, or else make it so PLUS members can turn off the animated ads.

Well there's five! Happy Christmas everycat!

Pirate names

Well, there's a program that is supposed to come up with a pirate name. It seems to come up with very similar names though. So Dad was nice enough to give me a pirate name. When I'm in pirate mode I will be called "Captain Blind Eye Bill". It's a good pirate name, because I was blind in one eye back in the day, and I'm Hammock President (some say President of the entire Bridge!), so I should at least be a pirate captain. And my name is still Bill, so there you go!

Lemonade for Rosettes!

Hey talk about genious! The folks at Catster have made lemondae for rosettes. Lots of cats know that I enjoyed lemon flavoured stuff back in the day and have helped me out with cool frosty glasses full. Keep em' coming folks! Hee!

You're all the swellest of swell!

*swigs another icy lemonade* Nice!

Seven Billfacts

Well folks, since the "tagging" rush is now over, I'll put my seven facts down for you to look at. Here's my little tidbits that you didn't or maybe didn't know about me previously:

1- I was a stray living off garbage and hand outs before my dad took me in.

2- My dad thought I was creepy and kept trying to scare me away when I first started hanging around the house where he lived.

3- Long before taking me in, the people in the house tried to see if there was any food I wouldn't eat. (fried onions were the one I passed on)

4- I liked lemon flavored things.

5- My dad once dreamed he had rolled over onto a baseball while he was asleep, when he reached back to pull the "ball" out from under him, he found it was my head! Hee! (he woke up right away and appologized for rolling over on me!)

6- Dad once won a prize in a photo contest with a picture of me.

7- I was unable to pull my claws in, so a playful swipe of the paw could draw blood. Also, I would sometimes get stuck on a carpet, and couldn't move until dad unhooked my fingers one at a time!

I still miss Bill

Bill has been gone for years now. I still miss him. I was reading a story about some people who got a dog back that had been missing for six years. I'm glad they got their dog back, but Bill won't come back. He was very sick with the FeLV and had to be "put to sleep". For this reason, I guess I feel responsible for his death. I know that he would have gotten worse, because the retro-virus is just plain bad this way. It's best that he didn't have to suffer for a long time. But it was still my decision and that makes it worse. I know he's in a better place, but sometimes I want to appologize for what I had to do.

Sorry, Bill. I miss you.
RJ

Bill The Amazing #3

Okay it's been a while, so as a treat for all of you this Christmas season, I'll give you another story of amazing stuff Bill could do.

Independantly turretting ears.

Now that's a mouthful, so I'll explain. If you watch a "normal" cat, they follow everything with thier eyes. Bill only had one good eye, so he didn't rely on seeing as much. He could rotate his ears either together, or separately.

When I walked through a room he was sitting in, he wouldn't turn to look at me, but his ears (both together) would turn towards me and track me as I moved across the room, like little radars. If there were two people in a room, he would (this is real folks, I don't make this up) have one ear pointing at each person. If I was in a room with two or more other people, he'd keep one ear pointed at me, and the other ear would go back and forth between the other people, as they spoke, as if he were operating a microphone.

True story. Bill. Amazing. I miss him.

RJ

I was old! I didn't die young! Woo Hoo!

Well, readers, as you know I was about 2 1/2 people-years old when I was ushered toward the Bridge. Now some say it's too bad I had such a short life. But guess what? I read just today (well, Dad read it, and let me know) that feral cats live between 1 and 2 years normally. So not only was my dad a swell guy for taking me in and giving me food I didn't have to chew, and not poking out my good eye, and everything, but I would have probably died way sooner! Think about it that way! It's normal for a feral to die way sooner!

I had a much better life than I was scheduled for, I think. I hope that makes my dad feel better.

Bill

Bill The Amazing #2

Here is the second installment of amazing things that Bill could do:

Because he could not chew, Bill could only eat canned catfood, not dry or semi-moist, or chunky, only the pasty-mushy canned food.

After scooping the food out of the can, I would let Bill lick off the spoon. Of course, I didn't hold the spoon down to make it easy. I would hold the spoon about waist-high (my waist, not Bill's). Bill would stand on his back feet. There was no crouching prarie-dog style, or using the tail as a third leg. Also, he was not allowed to use his hands for support. (side note: Bill didn't have complete control of extending & withdrawing his claws, so if he tried to grab something with his hands, it was ALWAYS with claws extended)

So, picture this. Grown cat, standing on his back feet, like a talking cartoon cat. The tail and the hands used for balance, and he licks off the spoon. Then he munches the whole bowl of food in a snap!

He was a good fellow! I never got a picture of him standing up though.

RJ

Look everyone, new pictures!

Hey look, Dad put a couple of new pictures of me up! There's one that's titled "Bill on the bills" that features me sleeping on a comfy stack of unpaid bills! How great is that!?!?

Pictures of me can be seen at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arejay/sets/72157594153724 111/

And way more pictures of Xander are at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arejay/sets/72157594153743 143/

Take a look. It's good fun.

Bill