March 14, 2014

I have been very derelict in writing. I can explain. Life here has been both extremely happy and extremely sad. I'll try to go month or so by month.

In the summer of 2012 Shaggy came to visit and then to stay. He is a Maine Coon. His whiskers are 6 inches long. He looks just like Rascal, the bookstore cat. He was still here in November. Victoria went ballistic because she said we had too many cats. She says what will she do if something happened to Mum and Dad. Dad said he'd take care of the situation and give the house to all of us cats and some money to take care of us. So Mum gave Shaggy to Dr. Orem's son who lives in an apartment in Pittsburgh. That was very late Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Mum put him in a cardboard carrier. On Sunday, Diana, her best friend, Dr. Orem's wife, said he sprayed the box in the car. Mum thought he was spayed and declawed because he had so much fur she couldn't see anything. She says now that his paws are called snowshoes. Anyway Doc neutered him and let him outside. Mum called Monday morning to check on him and he was missing, She was sooooo upset and even mad at our friend, Dr. Orem. She searched all over for him, put up posters, and went door to door. The vet lives over 2 mile from us in the country. She searched for him like she did for me when I was up the tree. She was in tears. On Wednesday morning he came home like Mum says "over the river and through the woods". They won't give him to anyone. He lives with us no matter what my human sister says. We can't give him to someone else because Mum says he has a rare homing instinct. Not  all cats and dogs have that asset. There have been stories and movies about some cats and dogs who traveled many miles and even years to return to their homes.

Mum's life became very sad from then on.

Mum's very best friend was Diana Orem. She talked to her or was with her every day for over 10 years.She became quite ill in 2009. She refused to go to the doctor because she thought it was the flu or gall bladder until the summer of 2010. By that time she did she was nearly dead. Liquid had closed one of her lungs and gallons of water was drained from her chest and stomach. The diagnosis was Hepatitis C, a disease that kills the liver and is caused by tainted blood.

I will continue this tomorrow. I promise! It's too late and I need to make Mum go to bed. She's not been well. The weather has her bi-polar condition out of control!