Whiskers & Purrs

The Beginning of Our Journey

It was March 1993.  The winter had been hard and she knew she needed to find shelter soon.  It was almost time for her babies to come.  She had gone several days without food and her belly ached from hunger.  But she knew that she didn't have much time so she searched day and night for the right spot...a place where they would be warm and safe.  Food could wait one more day.  The sky had been gray all week...no sunshine to warm her tired body...then it started to snow.  It snowed hard...sometimes so hard that she couldn't see her way ahead but she kept moving...kept searching for just the right spot.

After days of roaming, she finally found it...it was a boat that had been covered with a bright blue tarp for the winter.  She struggled so hard...it took all of her strength to tear it off but she did it...found a little spot where she could crawl under the tarp.  And, finally, after a very long journey she rested.

Within just a matter of hours, they came...four beautiful kittens. They nursed and she bathed them but she was so tired and cold.  The babies slept, unaware of how tired their mommy was...unaware of how much danger was ahead.  She struggled to keep warm but finally she just had no more strength.  She passed quietly while the babies slept.  Now they were all alone.

He was inside wondering when the snow would ever stop.  It was very strange for that much snow to hit Richmond...especially in March.  The tulips and daffodils were already in bloom but buried under more than 7 inches of snow.  As he looked out the window, he noticed the tarp from his prized boat had blown partially off.  Must've been that blasted storm.  So, he suited up and headed out to check on it and put the tarp safely back on.

At first he thought it was birds chirping.  Could birds have gotten underneath the tarp?  As he lifted the tarp, he saw her.  She was laying on her side.  He thought she was just sleeping but when he touched her, he realized she was long gone.  Within a split second he understood that the sound he had heard was not birds...it was two of the smallest kittens he had ever seen screaming at the top of their tiny lungs.  He quickly took them and rushed them into the barn where it was warm and dry.  Once they were settled, he realized he had to tend to their mommy.  So, he gently lifted her and the two other babies out of the boat.  "Poor little things," he thought, "they never had a chance in this storm." 

And that was the beginning for Lucy Margarite and Ricky Eugene Graves.  Once the storm subsided, the old farmer called the Humane Society and they gladly took the two little babies in and promised to find a home for them...six weeks later they became my very best friends.

Happy Birthday my sweet angel cats.  I miss you both so much.  Today, just like every March 13th for the past 15 years, I am going to celebrate all that you taught me every day we were all together.  Please keep watching over us all.

Love,
Mommy

Update

Hi Everybody in the whole world.  This is Mazie Grace a speakin'.  I know ya'll all know that there has been lotsa sadness in our house lately.  Mommy has been real sad now that Lucy Margarite has gone to heaven.  I wish we could find a way of gittin' mommy to unnerstand that Lucy is still here.  She got her wings last week and she visits with us everyday.  Plus, she and Ricky both curl up with mommy when she goes to sleep.  Dang...I was hopin' I'd git the pillow next to mommy but looks like Lucy & Ricky still have first dibs!  It really sucks bein' little!

Last week them nice people from the Veterinary Referral and Critical Care Hospital called and said that mommy needed to come by.  Mommy 'xplained to us that when we go to heaven, we don't need our foxy bodies anymore.  See, in heaven, everything you gots is brand spankin' new!  Plus, you get some super-dupery fancy wings.  So, mommy had Lucy cremated.  I ain't sure what that means but all I know is that mommy started cryin' when the people from VRCC called.  She went to git Lucy real fast 'cause she said she wanted to bring Lucy home. When she got there, the nice lady at the front desk said they had somethin' real special for mommy. 

See, them nice people at VRCC had made a paw print of Lucy's paw in some plaster after she went to heaven.  They painted it all glittery pink and put some pretty beads in it.  When mommy saw it, she started to cry real hard.  She couldn't even talk to the nice lady to say thanks.  Just think...Lucy's paw was right there and we git to keep it for ever and ever!    Ya know, many times that very paw slapped me upside the head and nearly knocked me silly.  Wow...

I'm gonna always bow down and honor this paw print for ever and ever and ever!

So now Lucy and Ricky have a very special place in our house.  Mommy says she wants everybody that comes to our house to know that they is still very much a part of our family.  So, she has their ashes in our Secretary, next to their wedding picture.  Not me or any of my brothers and sisters are allowed to go near the stuff  inside the Secretary.  It's got big doors with glass windows on it that keep us from messin' with the stuff inside.  So we just all look at it every once in a while.  Plus, Lucy and Ricky still slap us around if we git to close to the stuff in that cabinet...they watch over everything and all of us.  I guess we is real lucky to have such good angels a watchin' over us.

The Messenger

Hi.  This is Ricky a speakin'.  Ya'll probably don't remember me...I went to heaven 2 1/2 years ago.  Now this here postin' is a little bit long but please promise you'll read all of it...it's VERY EXTRA SUPER IMPORTANT...I've been a hangin' out just watchin' over mommy, Lucy and Elsie.  See, when I lived in my house, it was just the four of us.  Me and Lucy was The Originals.  We lived with mommy for 10 whole years before Elsie showed up.  Me and Lucy really didn't like Elsie that much...she really had the hots for me - bad!  She got on my nerves an awful lot 'cause she wouldn't leave me alone...kept tryin' to get all up into my business.  Now that I'm an angel, I know she ain't that bad.  But at the time I had all four paws down on the ground, she just rubbed me the wrong way.  See, once you git your wings, you can see things in a whole different way.  Maybe it's just 'cause you're up in heaven things look better...I don't know.  You can read more about me in heaven here.  I do know that I think Elsie is kinda cute and I would be her friend now that I've got all this angel-cat wisdom a goin' on.

So I lived with Mommy, Lucy and Elsie for 'bout a year and then I started gittin' real sick.  See, I had me some cancer in my tummy.  I really didn't wanna leave mommy and Lucy.  I stayed as long as I could.  It just started to hurt so bad that I knowed I had to go on to heaven.  If you click here you read the story of how I spent my last few days on the earth gittin' ready to go to heaven.  I really didn't wanna leave my mommy 'cause I knowed she'd miss me so much.  But she had Lucy and Elsie and then I made me a deal with Felix to watch over 'em, so, I knowed they would be alright and I could go to heaven where my belly wouldn't hurt no more.  What mommy didn't know was that I would still be with her.  I can see her but she can't see me!  I know that don't seem fair but that's what faith is all about.  So I went to heaven and I fly down and curl up next to mommy and Lucy every night to rest my wings...just about the time they start to drift off to sleep, I curl up and give 'em that warm fuzzy feelin' in their tummies.

Well, 'bout 2 years ago, Lucy got real sick...her liver wasn't quiverin' just right.  You can click here to read more 'bout her trip to the Hospital For Very Sick Cats.  She had to go to there for a long long time.  The vetroregurgitarians thought it might be time for her to go to heaven but I knowed better.  See, things wasn't ready.  I mean, I missed her but she still had some work to do.  Every night she was in the hospital, I would fly into her cage with my angel wings, and give her head butts and tell her "Lucy, you gotta git better.  Mommy needs you now more than ever since I'm not there.  Keep tryin', Lucy." And you know what?  She did git better.  Lots better!  So you can imagine how sad mommy was when Lucy started gittin' sick a few weeks ago.  The vetroregurgitarian thought it was the same troubles she had 2 years ago but me and Lucy knowed it was different.  See, I visited Lucy every single day.  I gots to tell you people that flyin' with your angel wings is the best way to git around.  I can visit mommy at work and help her out when she's havin' a bad day...and trust me, she seems to be havin' a lotta bad days lately.  Then I fly to visit my brothers and sister to give them head butts and smack 'em around.  Just. Very. Way. Cool.

'Bout a month ago, me an Lucy was a talkin'.  See, she telled me that her insides feeled funny...they hurt her a lot.  And, she was hungry but didn't want to eat supper.  The big GUY in the sky...you might call him Jesus or Buddha or whatever...told me, "Ricky, it's time for Lucy to come to heaven to spread her wisdom and brilliance around here.  We've gotta get some things ready." Now let me tell you, when the big GUY upstairs says it's time to git stuff ready, trust me, it's time to git stuff ready.  So, HE started workin' on some things.

So, ya'll know the rest of the story...Lucy got real real sick real real fast.  Aunt Doktor Davies thought Lucy had the same thing she had before.  She sorta did but she also had some cancer, too.  On Wednesday, her liver just decided it had had 'nuff.  Lucy waited and waited for mommy to git to the Hospital For Very Sick Cats.  She just really wanted to say goodbye to mommy.  I was there with her.  It was sad.  I just hate to see mommy hurt and cry.  I wish there was some way I could tell her that we don't leave just 'cause we go to heaven.  Goin' to heaven just means we git to be with mommy all the time.  Now there's a lot of catnip sniffin' and Fancy Feast eatin', but we only do that when mommy is sleepin' or at an Aerosmith concert 'cause we ain't real big fans.  So me and Lucy are in heaven together now.  It's so good to have her with me.  She's a gonna write ya'll some stuff soon...she's busy now gittin' measured for her wings and takin' her Intro to Angelhood 101 class so she can come down and watch over mommy and Elsie. 

Remember how I told you the big GUY said we had to start gittin' some stuff ready for Lucy?  Well...He knowed that mommy would be real hurt for Lucy to have to leave...and that she would wonder if Lucy was okay and maybe with me.  So...now pay attention to this part, 'cause it's real important.  See, back when I went to heaven, all of mommy's friends gived her flowers to plant in a memory garden just for me.  My Aunt Karen gived her real pretty flower bulbs that would come up every year in my honor.  They was some real funky-lookin' flowers...ya know, sorta like me...a real funky kinda guy.   Well, see, the big GUY knowed that one day mommy would need a sign that we was together and happy and still with her.  So, in the whole 2 1/2 years I've been in heaven, He never let them pretty flower bulbs grow.  Mommy just figured that one of them tasty squirrels in the yard had digged the bulbs up and had 'em for a snack.   

She just had no way of knowin'....see, yesterday morning, mommy looked outside and saw a bright red flower a bloomin' in the memory garden.  She went outside and realized that it was them bulbs Aunt Karen had sent for me.  The big GUY let one little bulb bloom on the very day that Lucy Margarite went to heaven.  Mommy had no idea that any of them bulbs was even still there.  This is the big GUY's way of lettin us say, "We love you, mommy.  We is A-OK and we ain't ever gonna leave you...never ever."  It's our very own messenger.

Very truly yours,
Ricky, The Angel Cat