Caturday: Sneakers pt 2

I know I went into some details about Sneakers last week, but let me add on some more. They'll seem random, but they do piece together, I promise - My great uncle John (my mom's uncle) has not had a pet since he was a small child and it was a dog. My great uncle (Unk) has also lived in the same house, the first home he bought with his wife (my great Aunt Anne), since the 1950's. Unk and Aunt Anne had no children and no plans other than to travel when they were older - unfortunately my great Aunt Anne got cancer and passed before they could do that. She has been gone for a dozen+ years now (I just remember being young) and yet my uncle still has all the poster boards with her photos from her viewing set up in his bedroom, has never dated since, still sleeps on "his" side of the bed and often made the trip to her grave site on a weekly basis even if that required walking the mile or so to the cemetery.

Then came Sneakers ... Sneakers who Unk referred to as "the boss". Sneakers who Unk said was his "best bud", his "reason for getting up in the morning". Sneakers who ate whatever he wanted (for example, Sneakers liked gravy, so not only did he get gravy cat food, Unk would often add gravy to it). Sneakers who got his name in holiday cards ("Love, Unk & Sneakers, the boss"). Sneakers who slept on my aunt's side of the bed. Sneakers and my great Uncle John have been the most important thing in each others lives for years now... but now they can no longer be together.

Sneakers, who can no longer be cared for by my great uncle due to Unk's dementia, went to the "Disney World" for cats, as my Aunt Sally referred to it: Tabby's Place.

Friday morning, my aunt and I loaded up her SUV with donations, leaving enough room for Sneaker's crate. We picked him up from West Deptford Animal Hospital, who has done wonders for Sneakers - feeding him, brushing him, loving on him. They've just been so kind! We thanked everyone there and then headed up to Tabby's Place where Sneakers was warmly welcomed with pets, snuggles and kind words. After a couple weeks in quarantine (with the entertainment of several kitties saved from Hunterdon Humane), Sneakers will be out, living the life in the cage-free sanctuary with his every need taken care of. If we could all be so lucky...

Today I am thankful - I am thankful there is a place like Tabby's Place and I am thankful to be a part of that family - it is overwhelming to be a part of a circle of people like that. Truly, I don't know of kinder, more loving people and knowing Sneakers will forever have the best of care thanks to Tabby's Place is just about the only bright spot in this very sad situation for the bond broken between my great uncle and his cat.

Caturday: Sneakers

Some of you might have seen my super thankful post last week:

Post by Jen Wesh.

Well here's what it was in reference too - Sneakers.

Sneakers is my great uncle's kitty cat and has been for roughly 10 years now. Uncle John (Unk) fed a stray or two on and off through the years, but one must have really caught his heart because Unk spent weeks - maybe even close to a couple months - with his door open trying to convince Sneakers ("Sneaks") that the inside-life was the life to lead. Unk was eventually successful and since then, he's referred to Sneaks as "his boy" and "his reason to get up in the morning." Though the fat cat (he used to be huge) often hid from company, Unk talked about a kitty who liked pets, sat on his lap and curled up on the long-empty side of the bed that had belonged to Aunt Anne when she was still alive.

Unfortunately, before Christmas, Unk was hospitalized and ended up not going home. A neighbor was kind enough to check on Sneakers and put food and fresh water out for him, but with a change in weather (and, I truly believe, depression with Unk gone), Sneakers became over-run with fleas, lost a great deal of weight and stopped using the litter box. After living alone for about a month and hearing how poorly he was doing, I headed over with Advantage and a hope I'd find the fairly elusive kitty... and he was bad! Buried under a bunch of my great uncle's stuff, Sneakers was much thinner than I'd even seen him, covered in scabs (from scratching at flea bites) and smelled awful from pretty much never leaving the room he was in (and not using a litter box). The house was also warm, making the smell that much more awful. My oh so wonderful vet tech buddy not only answered the phone when I dialed her number, but she answered all my random questions and she inspired that wonderful post above - I've been so lucky to meet some wonderful, sweet, truly self-less people who answer my random calls.

Not only did I get Advantage on Sneakers, but I got him into a crate to be on his way to the vet too. Thank you, West Deptford Animal Hospital for taking him in ans loving this stinky, scabby boy - he's already doing so much better!

Signs

This song reminds me of my dad.

I lit a fire with the love you left behind
And it burned wild and crept up the mountain side
I followed your ashes into outer space
I can't look out the window, I can't look at this place.
I can't look at the stars
They make me wonder where you are
Stars, up on heaven's boulevard
And if I know you at all, I know you've gone too far
So I, I can't look at the stars.

Well, the other night I had a dream and in it, I was sitting in this big field and I was singing this song, the chorus from what I remember...

And I can't look at the stars
They make me wonder where you are
Stars, up on heaven's boulevard
And if I know you at all, I know you've gone too far
So I, I can't look at the stars.
Stars
Stars, they make me wonder where you are

And as I was singing, this beautiful snowy owl flew out of the woods near by and drifted around in the sky, a semi-circle before flying back into the woods. It was beautiful and I thought, "Wow, was that a sign? Was that him?" I'm singing this song that reminds me of him and this beautiful bird flies out - birds like that remind me of my dad, mostly red-tailed hawks and bald eagles, but birds of prey in general really.

Just as I was thinking this, just as I was questioning it (I mean, it was a snowy old, not a red-tailed hawk, I thought, over-analyzing), this tree near by erupted (there's no other word for it) with these birds that burst out of the tree and flew in every direction out, up and then they came together in the sky before landing near me - and there they were, an arm's length away from me and they were what must have been 15, maybe 20 red-tailed hawk fledglings.

That was it, that was the dream.

As if all that weren't enough "signs", this song came on while I was in the car with my aunt a couple days later and I said, "This song reminds me of my dad" and I went to tell her about my dream (I hadn't told anyone at this point). Just as I opened my mouth to begin, she cut me off: "Look at that!"

On the car ahead of us, after a couple random numbers, the last three letters on the license plate were "D-A-D"

I hear you, Dad, and I hope you hear me too - I miss you, I miss you, I miss you.

a whole year

I have wanted to do little write ups on the fosters Matt and I have had this year because they each have seemed to come with these incredible lessons. It's truly amazing. As I ran down the list of dogs who we've fostered in 2013 though, each time I was a little bugged because there was just one dog out of all our fosters missing - Daphne.

Daphne was our first foster dog, but she was adopted in October 2012 - making her the only dog we have fostered that wasn't during 2013 (even Cordi, our 2nd foster pup who we started fostering in 2012, wasn't adopted until early 2013).

Perhaps fate heard my slight OCD tiny irritation about the timing? Perhaps things finally hit their tipping point in her adoptive home? Perhaps there was a lesson to still be learned?

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

In any case, with 2013 closing, Matt & I find ourselves fostering Daphne again.

Oh, Daphne...

There's not really much I want to say right now about Daphne and the whole thing with her being back with us. Quite honestly, enough has been said about her (not on my part) ... and very little of it has any relevance and even less of it seems to be true.

What I will say is:
- she's here
- we're taking our time (even though she knows our dogs, routines, etc)
- we're covering all bases
- she's doing f*cking fabulously!

thankful

Today I am thankful for Matt.

We both have the day off and he's up, feeding the dogs, letting them out and, after some more sleeping, made breakfast for both of us - bagel sandwiches with vegetarian "sausage" patties.

thankful

Today I am thankful for Sadie - my half smile girl (half her face is paralyzed), my silent support, my shadow - pretty much always at the foot of where ever I am...

And she's silly and so good with everyone: our others dogs, foster pups we bring in, the kitties.

I just love her to bits!

I stepped outside on to the back step while the dogs were in the yard yesterday - I felt the soft breeze, felt the sun coming through the tree leaves and felt my dad ... and then this overwhelming "I feel you, but where are you" emotion.

Hello from Peanut and Candice :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone