Pets and Healing

I sit here at my desk stunned. I have or had a cat who has been with me for 18 years. He was wild - feral - when he came into my life . I first saw him and his cat family in the snows of Edmonton in mid November 18 years ago. That cat family stayed in the hulk of an abandoned garden shed about a block from our house and the snow was already 2 feet deep at the time. The temp was way below freezing and those 4 cats and mom cat were just skin and bones. During the day, they would climb onto the roof of the shed where the bright november sun and wind had cleared that roof of snow. If you got within 20 feet of them all, they would scamper back into the shed through a hole in the roof. Each kitten was different. This one was all orange and very long haired. SPCA refused to lend me a cat trap saying that if a cat was caught in one, it would freeze to death when no one would check the trap. Daughter decided to act. She took a cat carrier and she tied a long string to the carrier door with the other end of the string in her car about 20 feet away. Inside the cat carrier she put an open can of sardines. And then she settled in to wait while listening to her music. Within 3 hours she was back in our house with one kitten in the carrier. This became our Chedder. Initially i had to wear heavy gloves etc to just stick my hand into the carrier to its back to bring out a spitting hissing clawing kitty. Within a day, this kitten was allowing me to pet him as he gobbled more food down and so my relationship started with Chedder. 2 days later we managed to get 2 more of those kittens and they were tame within a week but we already had 2 small dogs at the time. Chedder took the dogs in stride but the other 2 cats were terrified of the dogs, so we took pics of the kittens and put up their pics in the local Safeway store. Within hours of those pics going up, the 2 kittens were gone and there was Chedder with us. He turned out to be a wonderful cat as cats could become. He became the best cat buddy i could ever imagine. He was very sensitive to my moods and feelings. He was a true and loyal friend.

Last night i let him out of the house at about midnight and in the morning he was not there. It was a calm night. No storms, nothing. But Chedder is now gone and i suspect strongly that he will never be back. I am just sitting here staring blankly at my computer lost in thought as to what a lovely loyal friend Chedder was to me and dear wife. Pets are such a good therapy for us come rain or shine. xfmlg

Thank you for your kind words, Calm. I sure needed them.

I am so sorry you have lost your dear cat. He sounds like a true delight.
You are very lucky to have found such a connection.
I have had cats all my life and they are family.
hugs to you

Chedder has not come home. We have a video surveilance camera on our motel front door and that camera shows that i let Chedder out at about midnight. Chedder hung around the front door for about half an hour and then disappeared off the camera view point on the left. Wife and watched that video on fast forward and he did not reappear by the door. In the night, though, a local racoon appeared two times about 50 feet away from the door. I know the racoons were out every night doing their rounds of garbage cans and i know Chedder did a good job avoiding these critters. What happened to him after 1 am we will never know. I feel it in my gut. He will never come home. Dear wife is very upset too since he was her good friend too. I do not know what to do with myself with sadness that he is not with me now. I know time will heal all. I did a lot of hobbling around because of my bad knee but there is no sign or clue as to what happened to him. There are cougars in the forest here but we are in the middle of the town so i do not think they would come here for a meal but you never know. Our town has a population of 1500 so the edge of the forest is a block away. We have not had any cougar incidents here but there could always be a first time. Sigh. I miss my cat cuddling on my lap tonight right now.

So sorry to hear that. I know the feeling. I lost my 11 year old dog to a rapid spleen cancer in May in the middle of the quarantine. She was my best friend and of all the pets I've had, the absolute best. I'll get another dog at some point, but it's going to be a while. In the meantime I also find cats and my horses to be therapeutic.

I really hope your cat comes back. I have had cats come back after a few days so keep up the hope, but I also know that sometimes you just know and I really feel for you.

You are right. Chedder was very special to me and dear wife. At 18 years of age, he was getting very frail and thin. He has not come home and it is now 2 days and i know he will never come home again to me. He is somewhere in the sky where the loving cats of this world go upon their demise here. I know he is still with me in his spirit. It has been a tough 2 days now without him and i am getting used to that fact but the night last night was sleepless for me because he would sleep on the pillow next to me a part of every night. He did not seem to mind my snoring as wife does.

And now for an update on my health. Before i started on taking MSM pretty well last Christmas day, the only way i could get around even 10 steps, i would need to have my 2 canes which were basically crutches to get around. My right knee would not let me put any weight on it. Within a week of starting the MSM i could hobble without canes down the hallway in the house about 10 feet. Gradually that swelling of the knee is now going down to a point where i have put my canes down on about May 15 which means that i have not used them for a month now. I have walked about 200 yards to the corner store in town here. I can now do stairs a bit easier but still half a step at a time. Progress is slow but it is still there. There are days where it seems harder but maybe other things are at play like losing my cat to nature. The other day i walked 300 yards to the beach of Harrison Lake and it was real nice to walk there as the waves lapped at the shore and there were pieces of driftwood around that rougher water had brought ashore. I love doing that so much. Summer is now getting busy at the campground and its doing well. The motel portion of our enterprise here is dead (very little action) because people are still scared of Covid here. So somehow we will manage and it is a pleasure to look out the window here and see mountains and to smell the fresh air of late spring. We are blessed where we live. So i try and be optimistic. XFMLG

xfmlg said...
This evening, wife said, Lets go for a drive and we went for more than half an hour and we ended up at a residence where they had kittens for sale and she bought an orange 6 week old kitten for me. I told her i do not want it but her take is. You care for a pet and that pet will slow down the aging process in you. So now i am now sitting here at my computer typing away and telling you all about my new kitten Ocher like the color Ocher or ochie for short. Ochie is now relaxing on my lap half asleep soaking it in that he has now been adopted by a new human family. And we never did find the remains of our beloved Chedder. I m letting go of him that way. I thank dear wife for her thoughtfulness.

That is wonderful, xfmlg

I love orange kitties - I’ve had a few