Shelter Cats and Redemption

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.