2010… not a great year at all…

After losing my father in law, 2 grandmother “in laws”, a cousin, Boo “kitty”… now my Spanky kitty is gone.

So in true TJ fashion… I must write down my feelings, in some hopes it will help the hurt diminish, or at least subside for a bit.

In 1997, at the fresh age of 19, I was living on my own (between room mates) in a crappy apartment… a touch lonely for home, and looking for a lil extra companion to shed some light in my world… I found Spanky, or I should say she found me.  I drove out to Indiana in my awesome 1979 green Pontiac Bonneville (with plush velvet seats, lol), after seeing an ad in the paper selling “Siamese kittens”.  My sister (living in WI) had just gottten a sia’mix and was in LOVE with her (Boo kitty, who also passed this year).   So I took the hour+ drive with my sister in tow to the boondocks of IN.

Drive up to this “not so lovely” home, walked into a “siamese kingdom”, lol.  Kim and I sat on the floor, trying to figure out how to pick one of the darling lil kittens… then up runs Spanky, into my lap.. and BITES ME! lol I knew she was mine! Fiesty, sassy, and probably no more than 2 lbs in weight… she was the runt.

The whole drive home, she purred… sitting on the “sweet” velvet bench seat in the Bonne’ between Kim and I.   When we got home, I figured she was some sort of miracle cat… she immediately went into her potty box (we had to pile up a staircase of books for her to even get in it, lol), and that was that… potty training Spanky was that simple!

We used to call her the “Alien”, or the “Beast”… Alien because her ears were sooo big, she looked like she just got off a space ship!!!

Beast, because this 2lb wonder would hide behind furniture, then tear out like a bat out of h*ll, her tail all fluffed like a bottle brush, and bite into your ankles.. we thought it was adorable! lol

She would sleep wrapped around our necks at night, almost suffocating us as she got older, lol… but her presence was always welcome, she was my pal and got me through a tough time in my life.  No matter how big Spank got, she always found her way back into one of our necks… purring away in her happiness and contentment.

She had this ridiculous idiosyncrasy….. she HATED whistling!  My dad, a rabid (yes, I mean rabid) baseball fan would always whistle when his team hit a run… and we found out one day, when Spanky snuck up behind him and bit his hand in a fury… she didn’t like whistling, not one bit! So of course.. this became a game of ours, lol.

I dont care if you think I’m nuts for saying all of this… but Spanky was my friend, when alot of other people seemed to walk right past (or over) me.

Sadly, when Rich and I bought our home in 2000, I had to leave her behind w/my parents… Rich is allergic to cats, and the older he gets, the more intense his allergies get and the less stable his asthma and lungs get… so I visited Spanky on a regular (almost daily) basis.  We actually tried it out, because it was too hard to separate myself from her…. but when we brought her home, she cried all night for Boo cat (by this time they were pretty inseparable, living w/each other for 2 years by now). So we brought her back to her Boo kitty, and lived in our home “kitty-less”.  I was sad, but I knew she was happy being with Boo than anyone/thing else in the world.

Now Spanky is a “one person cat”… she loves basically one person (or 2) and tends to shy away (or spit, haha) at anyone else. Typical Siamese.
Her new “Love’ was my mom… however, Spanky never forgot me!  Any visit I made to my parents house, she would come out of hiding (another Siamese trait), and brush on my legs til I picked her up… then she would drap herself across my shoulder to my back… ahhh, good friends always remember eachother, and never forget to say HI!

My heart aches… my lil furry friend is gone.

Rich and My first “baby”.

I never even got to say good bye to her… I will try to find some peace that she is with her beloved Boo kitty again (in kitty heaven as I tell my son and daughter)…. but still, I miss my baby and I just wanna feel her purr against my chest, or rub against my leg one more time…

She was 13 years old, not 14… and if I had it my way, she would have lived another quiet furry 5 years with me.  She was not only a cat… she was my cat, and I will remember her for always as the BEST cat I ever owned, ever knew, or ever met.  She may have been a one person cat… but I was HER one person, and I will never forget that.

RIP my Spankster… mama loves