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Coloration: Tortoiseshell Tabby
Likes: In nice weather, she loved spending all day and all evening on the screened-in back porch, watching the birds, chipmunks and squirrels, chasing away visiting cats, and sleeping in the sun.
Pet-Peeves: Abby was always underfoot and was always getting her tail stepped on and she didn't like it!
Favorite Toy: She loved to play with her furry mice and toy balls, running up and down the stairs and all over the house, carrying them in her mouth.
Favorite Nap Spot: All over the house but she did love her cat bed.
Arrival Story: Abby spent most of her early years in shelters or foster homes. My mom saw Abby in a cage in a store owned by a woman who rescues and fosters cats for adoption and fell in love with her and told me about her. I went the next day to meet Abby and fell totally in love and brought her home with me that day. How a cat as sweet and loving and affectionate and as well-behaved as Abby lived all of her early life unwanted and unloved in shelters and foster homes is something I will never understand.
Bio: Abby was between 3-4 years old at the time I adopted her and one of the sweetest and smartest cats ever. She was intelligent, sociable, friendly, extremely affectionate, alert, active and fast, and understood every word anyone said to her. She loved to play with her toys and was very quick and agile when playing. She was very polite and well-behaved and loved people. She also loved just being with me. If I was down or sad and crying or sick, there she was beside me, putting her paw on my arm and looking in my face, saying "it's ok, I'm here." Abby always came and rubbed my leg to say "thank you" after eating a meal. If I wasn't nearby, she came and found me to say thank you. But Abby wasn't above swatting me with her paw, either, to let me know when she was displeased with me. Abby was with me for an all too brief 8 years.
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HER FINAL DAYS: Abby's symptoms began appearing in the summer and early fall of 2005, with black ear discharge, runny nose, not wanting her head touched, frequent constipation and occasional hiccoughs. Her vet said she had allergies. In November 2005, Abby began rapidly losing weight and had trouble swallowing and eating. Her vet did blood tests but couldn't make a diagnosis. She gave Abby a B-12 shot, which helped her appetite for one week, and told me to watch her carefully and give her extra attention and love. One week after Thanksgiving 2005, her tummy became distended and she stopped eating. On December 6, 2005, after x-rays, ultrasound and aspiration, she was diagnosed with a malignant and aggressive cancer. I was told her stomach was filled with fluids and she had mass tumors throughout her body. It was past the stage where chemo would help and surgery was not an option. I was utterly shocked and devastated. Abby was with us for only 16 days after we found out she had cancer.
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Abby left us for Rainbow Bridge on December 22, 2005 at 8:54 a.m. EST while I held her in my arms. My sweet Abby, I love you and miss you so much!
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CATSTER HONORS: Diary Pick on December 8, 2007
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Rainbow Bridge Angel Babies Angel of the Week ~ August 19 - 26, 2007
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Royal Feline Group Princess ~ April 19 - May 3, 2008
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Forums Motto: Guardian Angel
A dear and very special friend
FRAGILE CIRCLE We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan. ~Irving Townsend.~
My grandpa's (mommy's dad) funeral was this past Saturday, a rainy and gloomy day. When grandpa's funeral procession had entered the cemetary and at the exact same time the procession turned the corner leading to grandpa's gravesite, hundreds of starlings flew in from the sky ahead of the first car and beside the other cars in the procession. The starlings swooped down and landed on the grass on both sides of the procession.
Seeing the birds, grandpa's sweet 11 year old great-grandson (mommy's great-nephew) said:
Look! The souls of all who live in the cemetary have
come to greet us and give us a message:
Greatpapa has his wings!
Grandpa and I are together again. He has his wings and is here in heaven with me. As you can see from the main photo on my page, I loved my grandpa. We were very close when we were both on earth and I spent hours every day sitting and napping on his lap. Now I can spend eternity snuggling with him.
Memories of my earliest days are vague. Images flash into consciousness and then fade. Even here at Rainbow Bridge, where I thought I’d remember with clarity, I can’t bring my earliest days into focus. Perhaps it’s just as well. What I do remember . . .
Wandering the streets in a town in New Jersey. Having a litter of kittens. Sick and starving. A human brought me and my kittens to a place called a shelter. It was a kill shelter with a short wait time. Perhaps I knew? Even though I was in sad shape, I was sweet and friendly and licked someone’s hand. That someone thought I was such a nice kitty that I was worth saving. Another human had me in her home for foster care. Then I was sent to another shelter. Seems a mean ole cat at the shelter didn’t much like me. He picked on me and attacked me. I was a peaceful girl and didn’t fight back or stand up for myself. Other cats began picking on me. Still I wouldn’t fight back. Mean ole cat attacked me viciously. He cut open my nose and injured my eye. The scar on my nose never disappeared. Next thing I knew, I was in foster care again. The foster lady nursed me into good health. She thought taking me back and putting me back in with those other cats was a bad idea. She took me to the store she owned. It was a pet supply store. She didn’t sell animals in the store. She would bring 1 or 2 foster cats into the store. She put me in a cage in her store so everyone who came in to shop would see me. Hopefully someone would fall in love with me and give me a home.
Someone did. First grandma saw me and met me. She fell in love with me but didn’t adopt me. She did tell my mommy about me. Mommy hadn’t even been thinking about getting a cat. But she was intrigued enough to come see me. It was October 2, 1997. Mommy had a holiday from work and decided to come see me. I was in a cage at the back of the store. I liked mommy and was very friendly. She petted me through the cage bars. Foster lady let me out of my cage. First I jumped up on the lower level of the cat tree next to my cage. I studied my future mommy while she talked to foster lady. She seemed like a nice lady. I jumped down and came over to my future mommy. She started petting me and talking to me. I liked that and began purring up a storm. I rubbed her and rolled on my back so she’d know I was friendly and liked her. That did it! Then I heard the word adoption. My future mommy began talking to foster lady in earnest. Foster lady said my name was Abby. She asked mommy lots and lots of questions. Did that mean I'd get a home? Oh yes, please, please, please adopt me! Mommy filled out a form. Foster lady said she was going to check references and call the vet who had been Pete and Jennifer’s vet.
Mommy left me at the store and went home. She wasn’t sure when or if she could adopt me. Foster lady immediately made a few phone calls and seemed happy after the calls. A few hours later, she called mommy. She said mommy was approved and could adopt me. Less than an hour after the phone call, mommy was back with a cat carrier. She gave foster lady a donation fee. She put me in a cat carrier and then I was carried to her car. I was very nervous during the car ride and cried a lot. When I got to my new home, I was happy and very anxious at the same time. A new house and new smells! It was overwhelming! Soon I calmed down and began my new life in my new home with mommy. I was a very happy kitty in my new home with mommy. But that’s another long story and better told at another time . . .
My guardee Hamlet the Pirate (aka Hamlet) certainly keeps me busy 24/7! *sigh* My sweet little boy constantly finds himself in dicey situations where he needs protection or urgent intervention. Hamlet and his more placid brother Blacque Jacque Shellacque (aka Jack Matthew Cash) (who has FOUR (4) guardian angels!) want to be pirates and man their ship on pirates’ day. Problem? Neither can swim! Solution? Their big sis Briana has arranged swimming lessons for them in the ocean at Chatham. She told Hamlet he’d be swimming with the dolphins.
Dolphins?! Oh my wings! They’re Great White Sharks!
NAUGHTY Briana!
Time for big time intervention! Hamlet and Jack will NOT be going to Chatham. My angel powers have arranged swimming lessons for them in a nice, safe swimming pool.
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