Shelter Cats and Redemption

A happy, joyous, happy Holidays! Love, Tyler, Tiger, Sophie, and Jackson!!

Thought I'd make a blog post about this pic that came up in my "on this day" portion of Facebook. Anyone else think all this social media reminiscing is getting out of hand?  On this day, time hop, we need to look forward, not back! Maybe it's just me. Anyway, here's the original "old man" back in 2011.  A sight I woke up to one mid-December morning.  A sight I miss waking up to ever since he crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  While the holidays always has been and always will be my favorite time of year, it just hasn't been the same without him.  As much as I love Sophie in her own way, the bond I have with her will never compare.  I can't ever compare can it? Anyway, I thought this was a great pic of Tyler.  Still robust at 12 years of age.  Still my original old man. Enjoy!

Today is December 9th. Sixteen years ago today, I adopted Tyler and brought him to his forever home. Sixteen years.  My lord, has it really been that long? I've done many things in my life, who hasn't?  I've made many good decisions, and I've made as many, if not more, poor decisions in my nearly 43 years. Without a doubt, finding Tyler at Little Shelter, and running back there to adopt him and bring him home on this date in 2000 was the best decision I've ever made. I've never had a bond with any other being on this earth, feline or human, like I had with Tyler. I never will. I miss you, old man.  Hard to believe you're gone almost 2 1/2 years.  It seems so long, and it also seems like only yesterday.  I wish you were still here, I wish you could see how great Ashley, Peter and I are doing. I miss your head buts, I miss your purr, I miss how clean you always smelled, even towards the end when you were sick.  I miss holding you like a baby and...

Coming soon.......to scare up your holiday season....MUHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!

Here's a newsflash for you. I check my Facebook multiple times a day. I'm also a member of several cat groups that have popped up over the years on social media. OK, get up off the floor, I know I shocked the shit out of you.  Now stop it. But seriously, folks.  Yes, I check my Facebook, and what I see more often than not breaks my heart. People posting lovely, heartbreaking, heartfelt tributes to their cats that just crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  Every time I see a post from someone on a cat group, I stop.  I look at the photos of their beautiful cats.  I read their tributes. Sometimes I even tear up.  I always comment or click the "sad face" reaction.  I reach out when I can. Why?  Because I've been there of course. Twice. Saying goodbye to both Tyler and Tiger remains the two most painful moments of my life.  More painful than any heartbreaking break-up I experienced, more heartbreaking than losing touch...

I might have shared this video before, but what the heck.  It's adorable, so let's watch this again. Tyler, three years ago today, distracting me from a Battlestar Galactica episode I've probably seen 800 times. Enjoy!

Guess what?  Today is national cat day. Of the many "days" that seem to permeate our culture, this is the one day I can get behind with all my heart. So....to one and all.....happy national cat day. If you have a cat, or cats, spend time with them today.  Hug them, give them extra treats.  Play with them.  Let them know how much they mean to you. If you don't have a cat, what's wrong with you? I jest. In all seriousness.....go to a shelter, it's a beautiful day!  Adopt a shelter cat, give a shelter cat the forever home they all deserve. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Yin and Yang, 2009.

We interrupt our month long Tiger birthday celebration for an exciting update! Ashley, my forever love, took these two great videos of Jackson just a few moments ago! Fully recovered and svelte from his life-saving June 2015 bladder surgery, Jackson is happier and more playful than ever.  This brings tears of joy to my eyes and fills my heart with love to see my boy so happy. Enjoy!

One of my favorite pictures of the original feline dynamic duo.  Sharing an Ikea chair together, 2010 or so.

All October long I mark what would have been Tiger's fifteenth birthday.   Let's continue with another re-post from last year, slightly edited.  Hindsight as they say..... How Tyler and Tiger met I fell asleep with my new cat curled up on my chest.  He was warm, cuddly, and purred the whole night.  I was in heaven.  Despite my love for Tyler, and our inseparable bond, one thing he was not was a lap cat.  I can count on one hand how many times he sat on my lap in nearly 14 years. It was nice to have a cat that liked to cuddle, and Tiger LOVED to cuddle.  I woke up the next morning to evidence that Tiger had eaten and used the litter box.  Both VERY good signs considering how he was just a few hours before at the shelter.  I found him sitting in the window behind my headboard, soaking up some sun and his new view.  "Good morning Tiger.  Enjoying your new view?" MEOWOOO.  He arched his back as I scratched it.  H...

The first of a month-long celebration of Tiger Tuesdays, all October long. Tyler and Tiger, one of the many shots I got of them sharing a bed together, 2009 or so. 

This month marks what would have been Tiger's fifteenth birthday.   What better reason to have another month-long commemoration of the original "sweetums" right? Let's start with a re-post of the blog I wrote, just about one year ago, about how Tiger and I met. Ready to re-live these (slightly edited) memories with me?   Let's talk about.....Tiger.  Tyler's brother from another cat-mother. I dedicate this post to my favorite orange cat, and the original "sweetums." Isn't his name Tiger? Yes. So why did I call him "sweetums?" I can't pinpoint the actual day I gave him that nickname, but one day I just started calling Tiger sweetums and it stuck.  He was a sweetums.  He was the sweetest most gentle soul I ever came across, he stole my heart and Tyler's as well. Anyway, here's how we met. By the summer of 2008, Tyler had turned 9.  He was still the lovable curmudgeon I always knew, but the first...

Tyler Tuesday has been slacking lately, but it's back on track this week! One of my favorite pics of the old man, 2010. 

Actually that fountain she's drinking from isn't magic, it's just our bathroom faucet, I just thought that would make a cute title for this blog post. It's a play on an old Tarzan movie title, Tarzan's Magic Fountain, from 1949.  The first starring Rex Barker as a rather forgettable Tarzan following the retirement of Johnny Weissmuller, the definitive Tarzan if ever there was one. Cheetah Ungawa! Anyway, am I blogging about cats or old Tarzan movies?? Here's Sophie, Tyler's successor in every possible way, drinking from the same faucet he once guzzled from....ENJOY! (taken from the website  www.erbzine.com   btw)

Tyler Tuesday is back, after taking the summer off! Let's welcome Tyler back with a repeat of an oldie but goodie. Tyler's first photo, taken the first day he lived with me, 2000.  I still have that collar.

Flashback to 2003. The absolute best photo I ever took of Tyler, and what would become one of his most famous shots. The "Tyler sitting funny" picture! Have I blogged about this picture before?  I did?  Well, I'm going to again.  So there. August, 2003.  Just another run of the mill August in my Glen Cove apartment.  Knowing that apartment, the AC was probably struggling to keep the place cool.  Energy efficient that apartment WAS NOT. Anyway, I happened to walk into the living room one weekend August day when I noticed..... This. Tyler sitting on my recliner in this EXACT pose. With no iPhones yet invented, I grabbed.....an actual camera.....and managed to get this shot of him before he moved. The rest is history.   From that point on this photo, often imitated but never duplicated, became known as the "Tyler sitting funny" photo. Why was he sitting like that with that wild eyed expression?  Was he cleaning himself...

Today, August 17th, marks two years since Sophie came to live with me. Two years as the new boss cat.  I honestly could not have asked for a better successor to Tyler, as I've mentioned before.  I truly never expected another cat to come into my life so soon after his death, but as I've often said, life finds a way of taking care of the unexpected for you. More like she stormed into my life, and after a rougher than expected start, she stole my heart and I just love her to pieces. Let's go back to that very first day, shall we? Sunday, August 17th, 2014 A text popped up on my iPhone. “We’re outside.” She's here!  Ashley and I ran outside and met Lindsey, a skinny woman in Capri pants and a tan coming out of a Toyota Rav4.  “Hi Dan.  I’m Lindsey, this is my mom.”  “Nice to meet you both.”  The mother was pleasant, despite a look that screamed "I'll beat the shit out of you if you look at me funny kind of look.  Must be a ...

Today marks two years since my beloved Tyler crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  Two years and it is still as painful as it was on that awful day. Two years later and I am still full of guilt over what I could have done differently. Two years........ I thought I'd re-post the story I posted last year: Late July, 2014. Tyler had been in failing health all week, by Friday, August 1st, he was barely able to move or clean himself.  I fed him some homemade chicken broth that Ashley had made (he always loved her cooking), cleaned his feet, brushed him, and helped him curl up on his favorite spot on the edge of the couch.  Jackson had not left his side all week, escorting him as he managed to get to the litter box, and even attempting to clean his head. My poor boy was exhausted, disheveled, and the light was fading from his eyes. "It's OK Tyler, I will be OK. Jackson will be OK. You don't have to worry." Tyler looked at me. He purred, a soft, tired purr. I kissed...

This week I commemorate two years since Tyler crossed the Rainbow bridge.  With that comes a flood of memories, both joyous and painful.   Here's one I am eternally grateful to have caught on my phone's camera . It was exactly two years ago today that Tyler experienced the joy of jumping into an empty garbage can for the final time. July 26th, 2014. Two years ago I was dabbling with the idea of converting to Christianity.  A lifetime of disillusionment with Judaism, coupled with a rather severe personal crisis around my 40th birthday (I'm not getting into it now) sought me to seek religion from.....shall we say.....a different angle? I started attending a church, reading the bible (an app version of the bible of course) and gave it a serious shot, culminating with my baptism exactly 2 years ago today on a beach on the north shore of Long Island.  It was kind of a group baptism thing, I was one of 15 or 20 people who, one by one, accepted Christ and a...

A summer update and my current dynamic feline duo! Living with Ashley the Italian chef means.....yup.....a garden.  Well, pots all along our back stoop anyway.  Everything you can imagine is planted in pots all over the place and are watered and cared for quite well.  I being famous for killing plants just by looking at them means I stay totally out of this whole garden thing. Tyler used to use plants as his own personal litter box.  My mother always thought she had a green thumb and for the most part she did.  All through our large Long Island home were large potted trees and large plants, all cat safe of course.  Safe, that is, except for the soil.  It wasn't too long after Tyler came to live with me that each and every one of those trees ended up dying off once he started.....popping a squat. Citrus spray, pebbles covering up the soil, nothing helped!  To Tyler, a plant was an excuse to take a leak!  It was hard to get annoyed with him...

While time-hopping on my phone I came across this great pic of the dynamic duo, so I had to share! Tyler and Tiger. Sharing a meal, 2009. How I miss these two. 

A little video interlude this Friday.   Sophie, Tyler's wonderful successor, is quite simply.....a PURRING MACHINE! Enjoy!

This Thursday, June 9th, would have been Tyler's seventeenth birthday. Seventeen. Is that his actual birthday?  Not really.  I adopted him, as you know, on December 9th, 2000.  I was told he was a year and a half at the time, so, being the math genius that I am, I made his birthday, by default, June 9th, 1999 since they did not know his actual birthday. Could he have been older?  Possibly. Didn't matter to me, he had a birthday and that was that. This Thursday also marks the second year that I am celebrating Tyler's birthday without him.  I'm sure Tyler is having the party of his life at the Rainbow Bridge, with plenty of his favorite food, toys, nip, and Tiger to keep him company. Tyler was always the center of attention, he wouldn't want it any other way. Please join me this Thursday in honoring the greatest cat that ever lived. Tyler. Happy birthday old man.  It's just not the same without you.  Rarely a second goes by where I don'...

One year ago today, Jackson's health crisis began. Several weeks of vet visits, worries, and prayers later, Jackson emerged from major bladder surgery a much healthier, thinner, happier cat. Since then he's kept the weight off and has been great. My peace, my zen, my joy, my reason for getting up and my reason for always having a warm lap when I relax in my favorite chair.  Thank you to those of you (you know who you are) that supported me in every possible way during what was a tremendous ordeal for both human and feline. I do not know what I would have done had I lost him. Thanks to you, he is doing better than ever! Thanks also go to  Animal General of East Norwich , for saving his life! Here's hoping 2016 is a much healthier year for my boy! Jackson one year later:

Tyler is back after taking a week off! The face.  2009.