When I was 19, back in 1989, I moved into a little apartment with my girlfriend Sue. After pestering her for about a month, she finally agreed to let me adopt a cat. I found a "free to a good home" ad in the newspaper for a cat that was about a year old. They weren't sure exactly how old she was as she had been a wild barn cat when they got her. She was a rare cat, being a female orange tabby is almost unheard of and she had extra thumbs. They had called her "Mittens" due to her extra thumbs.
I fell in love with her right away and made sure that her owners were sure that she would be in a loving home. A couple days later, I brought her home to the apartment and renamed her "Meagan" after one of my Grandmother's cats. Now, she was a funny little thing and had some pecurliar habits. She would suck on the tip of her tail, often leaving it forked like a snake's tongue, with twin spikes of wet fur. Mom nick-named her "Baby" when she discovered this habit. She also loved to race at top speed from one end of the apartment to the other down the long hall that intersected it, usually at 2:00 in the morning!
She was pre-occupied with my pet turtle and actually dug through several layers of cheese cloth I had to put over the opening of his bowl to keep her out - found poor Tort, about a foot away from the front door one morning after she'd dug him out again, he had packed his shell and was leaving! *laugh*
Unlike other cats, she was a water baby and demanded to be "washed" with your freshly washed, still damp hands as soon as you got out of the shower every morning. Sue knocked her into the bath with me a couple times, which she wasn't to happy about. But she fell in love with the towel off sessions afterwards. I took her with me everywhere in those days and she would protest up a storm while we drove through town, but settled right down as soon as we hit the highway - a speed demon at heart, I swear!
After living in the apartment for a year, I brought her home with me to my parent's house where she discovered "outside"! Of course, no mouse, squirl, chipmunk, bird or bug was safe in our yard ever again. Several gifts she'd caught in the night were proudly left on the back step for us to find. She was a prolific hunter and fearless, nothing was ever to big or to much for her bravado, despite her unusually small frame! She'd go off on her adventures and that is when she became known as "Dolly" ... it was just to embarassing for mom to call out "Baaaabbbbyyyyyyy" when it was time to call the her back in for the night! *laugh*
Several years later, when it was time to leave the "nest" again, I was told that I was not "allowed" to take the cat with me when I moved. I protested right up until the last minute, but the logic was undeniable - she was an outdoor cat now and cried mercilessly to be let out every chance she got. It just wouldn't be fair to coop her up in a little downtown apartment after having sprawling fields, a yard and three levels of a house to play in. So, as I left the nest .. again, I left my little tailsucking moter boat behind, taking comfort in knowing that I'd see her pretty much every weekend anyway.
I've always thought of her as "MY" cat who just lived with my parents *grin* but it was clear as the years went on that she had become something very special to them. I swear, there are more pictures of them with her than they have of them with me! *chuckle* I've never seen my dad so affectionate with any of the pets we had before her and he would always remind mom to tuck the extra creamers into her purse for "our girl" when we went for breakfast every Sunday morning. He'd talk to her and she's squak back as he cut cheese for a snack for them both. But inspite of his best efforts to keep the tip of her tail out of her mouth whenever she'd curl up in his lap, the tail sucker was just that until the end.
Click on her picture to go to the touching tribute and read what my mom wrote about our darling little girl!
Big Hugs!!
Love,
Erin
