It was July 25th, 2009 that I posted the R.I.P. Jazzy post. I can let you peer into the window of my soul a little bit now on why that cat really moved me. And maybe later I will get more in depth into that but the healing process has come quicker than thought it would. I  mean this cat was and still is special to me and my wife in many ways.

First off she was “willed” to us by our friend Sue Spivey on her death bed. Sue was small in body by the time we meet her but large in heart and spirit as anyone I have ever had the privilege to know. She was suffering from emphysema when we first were introduced and later passed away from lung cancer. But in the time we knew her we came to love and respect Ms. Sue for the strength of her spirit and the size of her heart. Jasmine was small of frame but had the same spirit as her owner.To say this cat was special to us is well an understatement.

After we had to put Jasmine aka Jazzy to sleep my wife and I were severally bummed. As I was feeding the rest of the feline brood  that day I noticed the little golden eyed stray who was heavy with kittens had not eaten her food Saturday. I looked around the yard and the shed and such and did not find her. Well no big deal I thought it was a very hot day and she found a nice cool place to rest. When feeding the brood Sunday and Monday she still had not touched her food. I was getting concerned but thought she had gone off and given birth to the kittens. Knowing cats I knew she had found a place that was not only safe but high and dry. The only question was where.

The tide was turning from this feeling of loss to one of concern for new life. We searched the places we thought she would go but to no avail. So I do what any sane person does I ask the dog ” Hey where is our little golden eyed cat and her babies”? He runs up on the porch and sniffs at the end of our garden bench. Strange. But he keeps running back there sniffing and shaking his tail, or lack of because he is a corgi, vigorously. What the ?

I go in grab a flashlight and look under the porch. What do I see but two green orbs looking back at me. My dog had found the golden eyed stray and her kittens. I am amazed and hope I always am about how animals know ….stuff. Wow! I praise my stubby little buddy and put food and water under the porch so the little golden eyed stray can eat and drink in privacy while watching her babies.

For the next few days I check in on the new kids on the block and they seem well and momma has bonded with them. This is good and then I start trying figure out how I am going to get them into a little safer place. I talk to my bride and she agrees we can keep them in the bedroom now that Jazzy is gone. So I decide the safest way is to find exactly where they are and with the wife help we shine a flashlight in the seam between the boards where Ficus sniffed.You may have guessed this already there they were under a halo of light directly below where he sniffed.

I get the golden eyed stray out with a bribe of food and put her in the bedroom.She is is not happy so I move as fast as I safely can and carefully pry up one board and there they are: three very tiny balls of fur. I put on some rubber gloves so I will not transfer my scent to them. This is a precautionary move so the mother cat will re-bond with them when we get them in the bedroom with her. I put them in a large plastic storage tub and do so like they are made of fragile blown glass.

As I bring in the tub the golden eye stray is agitated a little but not as bad as I thought she would be. I then put down the tub and leave so they can reconnect. I come in later and there she is laid out on the bed watching her babies. Life is good. I can tell you that it wasn’t till she finally fed them later that night I felt we had made the right decision by moving them inside (the last time I heard a sucking sound it was my job going down the economic toilet not a sound of cat feeding her young). And I can tell you she is a great mom. She no longer gets on the bed but sleeps on the floor where she can get to her babies quickly.

Life is still is still jagged but it is a little bit better because of life’s little surprises.