A Place for our memories

[daftcat75]

Krista learned that I moved her favorite toys from the bins to the closet. I don’t even remember why I moved them. Even at 15 years young with IBD and tooth issues, she wanted to play. Usually she only lasted for a minute these days because of arthritis. But she still would walk into the home office and sit at the closet door. This was her way of asking me to get a wand from the closet and play with her for that minute.
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Even to her final days (when lymphoma had taken 2/3 her former weight ), a laser pointer would flatten her and get a pounce or two.

I was just going through pictures and found these two from December 2012 and July 2013. That would make her about 8 years old. These are some of the earliest pictures I still have or her. Early digital. Before cloud storage. Looking through my pictures, it’s like she didn’t exist before 2018. But then 3 or 4 out of every 5 pictures from the last two years are her. These older pictures are precious!

This is a former apartment and a healthy Krista who knew nothing of gut, butt, or teeth issues back then.

 

[daftcat75]

One of the things I loved and miss the most about Krista was her trill. When I first met her at the shelter, I had never heard a cat make that noise before. I asked the shelter worker if that was a healthy sound. I came to understand that it was her hello, aloha, shalom, and wassup! When she got older and sicker, her trill became a measure of her health. She briefly lost her trill for a few months during a health spell where she was hospitalized for ten days for liver, gallbladder, tooth, and ear issues. All at the same time. Ooof! She had a feeding tube inserted too. The trill did come back and I never took it for granted since. I often said, "She's trillin' like Dylan. I can't always make out what she's singing, but I like her sound!"

Through the magic of technology, and a bit of stubborn geekiness because Apple makes this a lot harder than it should be, I extracted the trill and trilling meow sounds from this video into sound clips. Then I made Shortcuts that play those sound clips. Finally, I associated those shortcuts with the double and triple back tap (tapping the back of the phone) on my iPhone (it's under Accessiblity-> Back Tap.) Now just as easily as I was able to press the trill button on Krista (which was pretty much anywhere!), I can now get her trill out of my phone with a double or triple tap. And every now and then, when I set my phone down on a desk or table, it registers as a double or triple tap and a surprise trill emerges from it. This never fails to make me smile!

This is the source video that I took her trill and trilling meow from.
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And this is the earliest video I have of her. This could not have been much more than a month or two after I adopted her. She was already two years old. Sadly, I have never seen her as a tiny kitten.
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I also created a Shortcut with her purr. But there isn't a "scratch behind the ears" button on my phone. It's a Shortcut lacking a button.
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[danteshuman]

Dante had a big personality & was glued to my side. I really called him Bud & only called him Dante when he was naughty. My two strongest memories of him are 1 when he was a kitten & 2 his love of play.

Dante the greatest Bud loved to destroy newspaper and tissue paper! He would bite into it, shake his head, spit out the bit of paper & then attack it again!



My other funny memory of my Bud is when he was around 8 weeks old. Now he was a hyper terror to begin with. His older ‘brother’ Salem (he was 1 year old at the time) is a sweet gentle giant. So the kitten adjusted to his home the last two weeks and then tackles Salem. This tiny kitten bites Salem’s scruff and won’t stop. So Salem stands up and walks around in circles slowly ..... with Dante’s little legs dangling! Meanwhile Salem is giving me a “help me mom!” Look! I quickly saved Salem from the naughty kitten. I wish I had photographed it ...... & not lost all the cat pics in the divorce.

They worked out their differences but Dante was not sharing me!

 

[Meekie]

^ I love Dante's cute puffy cheeks.

Rico used to live for my afternoon naps. So did I! But usually because I knew we would be sharing them together. Sometimes he'd try to lure me into the bedroom way before nap time by finding me, meowing loudly, then running into the bedroom. I'd tell him it was too early for nap time, but sometimes I'd give in.

He's snuggle next to me and I knew I couldn't fall asleep until after the love bites. They'd start on my chin, move to my cheek, and then he'd nibble on the skin right under my eye. It was painful and a little scary but I always let him do it until I couldn't stand it anymore. He always made me laugh.

Now I dread naptime. I can't sleep because he's not there to eat my face. I still have his buddy Aniki to nap with, and Aniki is an expert snuggler, but it's not the same.
(I wrote that real small because he's sleeping on the bed behind me right now and I don't want him to read over my shoulder and get jealous)

 

[BellaGooch]

I remember how my Bellagirl was always so petite and tiny, and how she would bunnykick when she played or got tired of being pet, but if you needed support, she'd instantly be purring on your lap. She knew

 

[Meekie]

I once fostered a big black cat named Lucifer (awful name...I changed it to Louie). He had been mistreated and was quite vicious. I remember standing at the sink washing dishes with Louie in his cage just a foot away. He started swiping at my ankles. If he hadn't been declawed, he would have shredded them.

I worked hard with him, first getting him to stop hissing at me, then letting him out of his cage until he tried to attack me. It was slow work, but I knew I had succeeded when one night I was minding my own business watching TV when he suddenly jumped on the couch and settled in my lap.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I loved how Gracie would let me put reindeer ears on her and then even be gracious enough to sit for a picture.

I finally found the pic!

 

[zed xyzed]

Midnight would join me in bed every night. After got into bed Midnight would do a quick patrol round the house for about 10 minutes and then would jump into bed and settle in between my legs and use my bum as his pillow. I would wait for the little thump as he jumped onto the bed; It made me smile every single time. When he got older I needed to put a chair at the foot of the bed so he could get up. I love you Midnight you are missed and thought of every day. Until we meet again my dear friend

 

[les26]

I finally found the pic! View attachment 363098

That's so cute! Sylvester would rip my arms off if I tried to do that to him lol!

 

[Meekie]

I remember my naps with Rico. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he would join me whenever he heard me lying down. He would start with the love bites, then settle down next to me with his paw draped over my arm and his face just an inch from mine. I used to have to adjust us both so his whiskers didn't tickle my face. He'd always fall asleep quickly. I'd sleep for about a half hour and always felt so guilty getting up because he made it clear he didn't want me to get up.

 

[BellaGooch]

I remember Bella would sit on the back porch during the early hours of the morning. If you got up to go to the kitchen and get some water and caught sight of her, she wouldn’t let you be until you fed her. I remember having to feed her at like 4:00 in the morning because she wouldn’t stop meowing She only ate the tiniest, daintiest little portion, but I think it was the hilight of her day

 

[BellaGooch]

Midnight would join me in bed every night. After got into bed Midnight would do a quick patrol round the house for about 10 minutes and then would jump into bed and settle in between my legs and use my bum as his pillow. I would wait for the little thump as he jumped onto the bed; It made me smile every single time. When he got older I needed to put a chair at the foot of the bed so he could get up. I love you Midnight you are missed and thought of every day. Until we meet again my dear friend

Wow, that is so sweet. I almost started crying! What a sweet memory

 

[kittyprincesss]

I thought it would be nice to capture some good memories of our absent friends. I encourage you to to write something as often as you like. I know I would be able to write a hundred pages about my sweet friend Midnight. Almost everyday something reminds me of him.

I will start

I loved how Midnight would always would say hi back to me with a little meow when I walked in the room and said hi or told him how much I loved him.

I loved how Enriquetta would always come back to lay down with me. Whether it was 2pm or 2am, she would always come back to me. I knew wherever I went, I could count on coming home and being greeted by her sweet voice, and her face rubbing against my hand as I told her how much I missed her. There was never a dull moment, with her big, sassy, calico personality. My green eyed beauty.

 

[zed xyzed]

Last night I decided to make a Blue Cheese pasta sauce and I thought of Midnight again; because the silly guy loved blue cheese the sharper it was the more he like it. He would sit by my feet as I cooked giving me a headbutt every once in a while to let me know he was waiting for a treat.

 

[BellaGooch]

Awww
Bella used to love cheese as well. She never directly begged outright or meowed for food, but she always made sure she was near me while I was eating cheese, just in case

 

[daftcat75]

Krista would not be sitting at my feet.

She would be on the countertop. In her last years, I stopped fighting her over this. It was easier to clean my counters than to teach her not to be a cat.

I would often have to build barriers to keep her away from the stove while cooking.

Or to keep her away from my food while I was eating.




She was respectful of these barriers.

Most of the time....
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I still eat too fast like I'm expecting her to pop from one end or the other. I would say she had Murphy's pooper because it was always while I was eating.

 

[daftcat75]

Krista was briefly on Pepcid. She had to take it 30 minutes before meals. I would set the timer on the microwave. Although she maybe only took that medicine for two weeks, she would forever after run into the kitchen when the microwave beep beep beeped at the end of a timer or a cook. I would and still do frequently stop it at 1 second rather than summon her to the kitchen.

There was also a brief period in her life where I would let her lick the scrambled egg bowl after I poured it into the pan. Forever after that any time I scrambled eggs, she would run into the kitchen at the sound of the clink clink clink of the fork in the bowl.

I still think of her every time I use the microwave or scramble eggs.

Or dozens of other little cues we shared.

 

[Tik cat's mum]

It's funny how cheese made me think of Tik and food. He loved cheese too come to think of it he loved all human food and let us know. When we would eat he would sit looking up at us licking his lips like dog's do. My husband called him his cat dog. He had a way of making you feel guilty so you would give him a little bit. I think it was those puppy cat eyes.