Shelter Cats and Redemption

I could have sworn I blogged about this, but it looks like I didn't. How could I miss this story about Tyler! This past Friday, I received some tremendous news, news that totally made my day. I'd found Chloe. Who, you may ask, is Chloe? Chloe was Tyler's brief love affair, and his first apprentice. Here's the story. 2007: At the time,  I had this close female friend, for the sake of decency I'll not mention her name here. Let's call her.....FRIEND.  Friend and I spent a lot of time together when we were both single and lived close to one another.  While primarily a dog person, Friend was always envious of the immense bond I had with Tyler, and was dying to, around late 2006-2007, attempt to recreate that bond by adopting a cat of her own. Enter...Chloe.  An adorable young semi-long-haired kitten from North Shore Animal League,  an organization I'm not going to subject you to a rant about.  Not a fan.  Moving on. Chloe was less than...

Do you celebrate your cat's birthdays? Of course you do, anyone who actually loves, honors and respects their pets does such a thing. Today is, for Sophie, just such an occasion. Sophie turns 8 today. How do I know this?  Sophie's previous owner was good enough to give me all of her vet records, and sure enough, the date April 22, 2010 was listed as Sophie's birthday. Simple enough, right? Happy birthday, old girl.  Hard to believe you're already 8, and hard to believe this summer marks 4 years since you succeeded Tyler.  As I've said countless times, Sophie is the perfect successor for Tyler. The perfect alpha cat. Despite all that has gone on in her 4 years as the boss: from losing Jackson, to finding Tucker, to Minnie's arrival, to the comings and goings of The Colony, Sophie has remained large, in charge, and above the fray. Sophie does things her way, and remains a pioneer in my lifetime with cats. The first female cat I ever adopted. ...