Heeere's Lucy!

One of the downfalls, or pitfalls of pet companionship is that it is a hard habit to break. Notice I said COMPANIONSHIP not ownership, which would make it pretty clear that the companion is a cat! In this situation, as I said in my very first article, it's the CAT being in ownership, not the human!

A very sad report is in order here, I suppose. Jeri the Cat got old, very old, and very ill, and showed signs of not enjoying life anymore. She was very scrawny, not eating, and even wanted to go outside one night, something a cat will want when it knows its life as a cat needs to give way to the next one. No guessing what Jeri is now, but she was put to sleep on March 10, precisely 18 ½ years to the day after I brought her to her new home. Broke MY heart, needless to say, but at least she does not hurt anymore.

Four months later, and I am wanting additional life in the house, I mean beside the multi-legged critters I occasionally get to render capital punishment to for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They very often wind up on their backs, a physical act I find hard for them to accomplish. Think Jeri played em like hockey pucks.

Anyway, I heard about a female orange tabby at a local clinic that was free for the asking. Around here, orange tabby ANYthing is hard to find in the animal rescue shelters. Tabbies are very sweet cats, so they get a lot of takers in any place. I had decided I would like an orange tabby girl for a change, after having had two boys in that color. I decided also she would be named after a celebrity, and the most famous redhead I know of is Lucille Ball. Only this girl's name is Lucy Ricardo. I will get her a dark colored playmate one of these days, and call him, Ricky Ricardo, of course.

One other very active young lady I could have named her after is my niece, Ginger Williams. Known by the stage name of Virginia Williams, Ginger was and is a very active, beautiful and gifted young lady. In the days before her birth, I asked her mom what this addition to the family would play, football or basketball? "SOCCER" was the emphatic response. Google that stage name and see what she's into now. No tellin!

But back to Lucy. She is a four legged bottle rocket, to be sure. She flies here, flies there, shoots herself up the steps like a bottle rocket and gives me no end of entertainment watching a 7 week old cat find herself, especially her tail. She gets caught up in the occasional high-speed chase in circles, as every feline does in their earliest days. She also gets off on a catnip mouse she plays with named Herman and acts like a truly hallucinated animal when she gets a whiff of him. That's some cologne, son! Baby Boomers Quiz: Name the TV show we grew up with that had a mouse named Herman and a cat named Catnip. Reply in the comments, s'il vous plait. I honestly can't remember, but think it was Rocky and Bullwinkle. Got off on Bullwinkle didn't you?

Lucy knows who her daddy is, and occasionally jumps on my lap for a visit. LOVES that strokin! Over the head, down the back, and off the end of her beautiful orange tabby tail. Gimme dem M's babe, Gimme dem M's! She purrs as loud as Snaggle Puss did and a 7 week old tabby purring is something to hear. Ya know yer doing SOMEthin right when ya hear em.

Actually she is downright addicted to being petted, and I think I am going to make a video of her walking back and forth under my hand, with that Robert Palmer song "Addicted to Love" and post it on Youtube! Don't hold your breath, it's a copyrighted song and I can't post it in a venue where money can be made, and not pay the Palmer estate. Its called infringement.

One thing a very young cat can become entranced with and terrified by all at once is these overhead articulated cranes I pick her up and pet her with.
Arms, hands and fingers that can pick her up 8' off the ground give her heart failure, but they also give her the pleasure she cannot stay away from. She'll just have to get used to it! At least she has a home and a human, she's not doing too badly, I reckon.