Day 145: Goodbye to Gabriel

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 145: Goodbye to Gabriel

Eleven years ago I joined a cat forum, not knowing that this forum was specifically for people with Ragdolls. I didn’t have a Ragdoll at the time, but the administrator let me stay anyway.

I quickly fell in love with this breed of cats. What was not to love, judging by the photos and stories they were beautiful, affectionate and smart.

Judging by the price of such a cat, I knew I would probably never own a Ragdoll, it just wasn’t in my budget. I preferred rescue animals over purebreds anyway. For the price of one purebred cat, I could help several abandoned ones.

Still, when I heard about a breeder who wanted to get rid of a Ragdoll kitten because it wasn’t perfect, I jumped at the chance. He was willing to let the kitten go at a fraction of the price. To this day I don’t know what was wrong with the kitten because it sure looked perfect to me. Right away we knew what we would call the little one … Gabriel, because he was a little angel.

When I first held Gabriel in my hands, I was surprised at how soft he was. From the forum, I knew how beautiful Ragdolls were, but nobody had told me how soft they were. His fur felt like that of a rabbit.

As soon as I brought Gabriel home, Mickey (one of the resident cats) adopted him. The two would eat, play and sleep together and were generally inseparable. When Mickey wasn’t around, Gabriel would substitute him with his cuddle buddy.

The years passed and Gabriel grew up. He might have looked angelic, but he could also be a little troublemaker. His toy was his and he was never one to share.

He had a fondness for toilet paper and frequently made a  mess in the bathroom.

Most of all, he liked the feel of moving the rugs. She would come running, jump on the rug and glide several feet further. He became known as 'the carpet surfer'.

He became the alpha of our household and those who dared to cross him were on the receiving side of a stare that spoke volumes. He ruled the roost.

  

Other than that, Gabriel’s life can be summed up with the slogan … live and let live. He was an easy going cat, who spent most of his time on his back. He liked sleeping in front of the fireplace, the cat tree, a cabinet, a chair, the windowsill, out on the balcony, or his favorite spot, on top of the wall unit in his basket. 

Wherever, whenever, Gabriel was an expert in relaxing and putting his feet up.

What he didn't like was having his picture taken. When he saw me coming with a camera, he got suspicious and turn his head. 

Last night things suddenly went wrong for him. He came into the living room crying and trying to vomit. Thinking that something was stuck in his throat we rushed him to the emergency clinic. As it turned out, his throat was clear but the vet said that he wasn’t doing well. Gabriel had heart failure and fluid was building up in his chest making it hard for him to breathe. His urge to vomit was because he was stressed. 

To make him comfortable he was given oxygen, but now we had to decide what to do. With the right medication, he could live a few more months, but all things considered, he would suffer. The vet said she would give us time to think it over.

I didn’t have to think it over. I knew the time had come to let Gabriel go. Even though Gabriel was only 10 years old, having an animal suffer is unacceptable. So he was brought to us, we said our goodbyes and he peacefully crossed over to Rainbow Bridge.

There are so many things we will miss about him. Dieter will miss him too as every night, without fail, Gabriel would jump in the chair next to him and demand to be petted. He would look at Dieter and let out a loud meow. BTW Gabriel never said meow as such, his meow sounded like “mayo”. 

Merely petting him was not enough, he wanted his head and specifically, his cheeks rubbed. If Dieter stopped too soon, Gabriel would meow again to tell him “Keep going” until he had enough.

Then he would retreat to his spot on the cat tree or jump via the cat tree onto the wall unit and lay in his basket. Gabriel would never curl up as such, he would rest or sleep on his back.

When the lights were turned off and I went to bed, he would come with me. Every night he would sleep on my bed. Last night he wasn’t there and this morning I missed his cry for breakfast.

While we are sad at the loss of Gabriel I have no doubt that he is in a wonderful place, reunited with Mickey and a variety of other cats. Rest in peace Gabriel. 

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I would like to thank everyone who commented on Gabriel's passing via email or Facebook. Your words were of comfort and I appreciate your support.

Day 144: Revenge of the kitties

   

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 144: Revenge of the kitties

As some of you may know, I have a bad back. To relieve some of the pain, my son bought me a Dr. Scholl’s back massager a few years ago. Most of the time, the massager lives in a draw in a cabinet, but on occasion when my back is particularly bad the massager is placed on a seat on the sofa.

Yesterday was such an occasion. I don’t know what I did, but over the weekend I injured my already painful back and I was in a terrible state. While the Dr. Scholl’s back massager can’t perform miracles, its vibrations are rather soothing. It has a low, medium or high setting, as well as a heat or no heat option.

As you can imagine, this massager was of interest to the cats. Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly have seen the massager before, but for Halley and Greyson this was something new. They approached and sniffed, their head bobbing left and right and up and down. What was this thing? What did it do? Was it alive? Could it hurt them?

Eager to satisfy Halley’s curiosity, Dieter picked her up and brought her closer to the massager. She immediately started squirming in his arms. She wanted nothing to do with this thing.

Alright, he wasn’t going to force her and instead picked up little Greyson. Young and trusting as he is, he didn’t fight daddy and allowed him to be placed on the seat of the massager. Under the watchful eye of Halley, Greyson sat on it, walked around on it, sniffed and seemed to approve.

When he seemed at easy with the massager, Dieter switched it on. Maybe Greyson would appreciate the soft vibrations. Well, that was a mistake. He leaped off the seat, landed on the carpet and turned around in disgust … what the hell was that?

Up next, Holly. Dieter had only just picked her up and carried her to the seat when she already started fighting me. NOOOOOOOOO!!! She was having none of it.

The same with Gabriel. With him too it was a case of … Let me go, let me go, LET … ME … GO!!!

After these negative reactions, he wasn’t even going to try with Charlotte. Charlotte is a nervous cat by nature, afraid of anything and everything, including her own shadow. He wasn’t going to risk her having a heart attack so he didn’t bother reintroducing her to the massager.

But Charlotte surprised him. She jumped in the sofa, walked over to the massager and sat on it. Did he dare switch it on? Why not. As soon as the massager purred at the lowest setting, she looked down and started pawing at the seat, obviously not understanding what was going on underneath her feet. Having investigated and approving of the vibrations, Charlotte did the unthinkable … she lay down and snuggled up again the backrest of the massager. It would seem that Charlotte’s old bones and muscles could do with some soothing too.

Later on that night it was time for Halley and Greyson to take revenge on Dieter. At bedtime, he called them to come in from the balcony. As expected they didn’t listen. They sat on the ledge, looking at the moon and the stars, the people down on the parking lot and the passing trains.

If the mountain wouldn’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed would go to the mountain. Dieter picked up Halley and carried her inside. Then he went back to retrieve Greyson. However things didn’t go according to plan. As soon as Dieter deposited Greyson inside, Halley jumped back outside, and once he had her inside, Greyson slipped outside. While he went for Greyson, Halley practiced a case of evasive maneuvering and before Dieter could grab her out she was again, followed at her furry heels by Greyson. Dieter was back to square one. Eventually he got them both inside and they sat looking at him with a smug look on their faces. This clearly had been fun for them and a regular case of cat juggling.

They seemed to think … you messed with us (Dr. Scholls massage seat) now we messed with you.

Day 143: Greyson Needs a GPS System

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 143: Greyson Needs a GPS System

When we adopted Greyson as a kitten from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother, she was kind enough to provide us with his favorite food, his favorite blanket, and some toys. However, Greyson needed more than that.

As it turns out, this kitten is in desperate need of a helmet, knee pads, brake pads, an alarm clock, and bell. Anyone who has or ever had a kitten will immediately know what I’m getting at. For those who don’t catch on quick, allow me to explain …

A Helmet

Every cat lover knows that kittens are lively creatures. They run around, at full speed, oblivious to any consequences. In Greyson’s case, he frequently narrowly misses a wall, cabinet, chair, or another hard surface. We cringe when we see him running, often yelling “Greyson, look out!” or “Slow down!” He hasn’t smashed into anything yet, but at the rate he’s going, he’s an accident waiting for a place to happen.

Knee pads

Along with running, Greyson does a fair amount of jumping. Especially when going outside. Technically our living room has floor to ceiling windows, but that’s not quite true. The windows don’t reach the floor, but rather a five-inch step. To go outside we have to step over that low obstacle. For us, that’s no problem as we’re used to that raised step, but for Greyson – being a tiny kitten – it’s a hurdle he has to overcome every time he wants to go outside.

Greyson, being the racer that he is, he doesn’t step over the hurdle one paw at a time but takes a flying leap to get over it. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. When he miscalculates his jump, we hear his knees making contact with the step.

Sneakers

Now that you know that Greyson doesn’t just run but races, the reason why he needs brake pads should be obvious. When he’s in hot pursued of Halley, or Halley chases him, Greyson throws caution to the wind. As fast as his little legs will carry him, he runs from the balcony, via the kitchen and living room to the bedrooms and back again. During this sprint, he has to take a few corners and that’s where things go wrong. The fur on the bottom of his feet causes him to slip and slide, resulting in him losing his footing and ending up on his side or worse, taking a tumble.

Alarm clock

In case you’re wondering why a kitten needs an alarm clock, let me explain. When I go to work, I get up at 6:00 a.m., on the days that I’m not working I sleep in until between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. Greyson, who doesn’t know the difference between my working days and my non-working days seems to think that if I sleep later than 6:00 a.m. I’m gonna be late for work and so he’s made it his job to wake me up.

Shortly after 6:00 he starts giving me kisses and like I mentioned in a previous post, his kisses are not to be underestimated. https://underthetorontosun.blogspot.com/2018/09/day-141-update-on-greyson.html

Combine that with his loud purring and within minutes I’m wide awake. Something I do not appreciate.

Bell

Last but not least, Greyson needs a bell around his neck or paws. Every night, before I go to sleep, I check that all the cats are okay and last night I couldn’t find Greyson. I checked all the rooms twice and there was no sign of him. Getting more worried by the minute I looked in all the obvious and not so obvious places, even checked the balcony … nada. Now it’s not so difficult to find Halley, as she’s a white cat, but Greyson is a black/grey tabby … try finding that in the dark!

Getting desperate, I crouched down to look under the lounge chairs when suddenly I felt something tickling my cheek … whiskers. When I looked it was Greyson sitting next to me, crouched down too. He little face seemed to say … what are we looking for?

“Where did you come from?” I asked him. “I looked all over for you.”

See that’s where a bell would come in handy. Or even better, a GPS system. 

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Day 140: Cats and Construction Works

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 140: Cats and construction works

The underground parking project is coming along nicely and after a noisy week (the last update being https://underthetorontosun.blogspot.com/2018/08/day-136-halley-and-geese.html the weekend brought peace and quiet. The quiet continued on Monday on account of rain.

If I thought the noise of the jackhammer was loud, that was nothing compared to another tool that was used to smooth out the edges of the concrete. A sandblaster. That thing made one heck of a noise. So much so that we had to yell at each other to make ourselves heard.

To give you an update on the latest progress ... 

 

 

While so far Holly, Halley, and Greyson had shown a keen interest in the works, while the sandblaster was attacking our eardrums with decibels, none of the cats went anywhere near the balcony.

Curiosity eventually got the best of Halley and Greyson though. When Dieter and I took them outside we were surprised at the progress the men had made. 

 

 

While initially Greyson clearly communicated "Hold me, daddy, I'm scared," later on, once he knew he was safe, he took a keen interest in the men and what they were doing. 

And what about Charlotte and Gabriel you might wonder. Those two are not remotely interested in the construction works. While Charlotte is not exactly scared, she doesn't like loud noises (doesn't even like the vacuum cleaner) and as for Gabriel ... he sleeps through anything and everything. I'm not kidding, whether the men used a jackhammer or a sandblaster ... nothing kept Gabriel from catching his zzzzz's.
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As I mentioned earlier, today it's business as usual, minus the noise.

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Day 132: Meet Greyson

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 132: Meet Greyson

Isn’t he cute? His name is Greyson and we adopted him from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother last Friday. Let me explain how this adoption came about.

On December 4, 2017 Mickey, our 13 year old tuxedo cat crossed Rainbow Bridge quite expectantly. He had trouble breathing, we took him to the vet thinking he had a cold, but he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. To ease his suffering we had him put down right there and then.

His passing left such a void that after two weeks I started looking to adopt another cat. While I would have liked to go for an adult cat, I doubted that the rest of our gang would accept such a newcomer. So it would have to be a kitten. 

I visited the Toronto Cat Rescue website and found Ella, a beautiful white kitten with grey patches and a grey tail. We adopted her on January 4^th from Jackie, her foster mom. Ella was renamed Halley and Jackie, her foster mom and I stayed in touch with emails and photos.

   

Two weeks ago, Jackie sent me a picture of Truffle, a kitten she was fostering. As soon as I saw Truffle I thought ‘OMG that is such a cutie’. The following Friday afternoon we visited Jackie for afternoon tea and we got to meet Truffle. He was even more adorable for real than in his picture and a real heart stealer. The long and the short of it is … we adopted Truffle last Friday and renamed him Greyson.

When I introduced Greyson to Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley things went more or less as expected … Charlotte was terrified of the newcomer and ran to my bedroom; Gabriel took one whiff of the little one and decided he wasn’t worth bothering with; Holly hissed and turned her back on him, while Halley looked like she’d seen a ghost.

From what I read online, a new pet should be kept in a separate room and introduced to resident pets gradually. This is probably good advice, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to lock the little one in the bedroom and leave him all alone. I would just have to chance it. I wasn’t worried, I knew I had to give Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley time to get used to this new addition to the family, but I was confident that everything would be alright.

After just 24 hours, Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly started to warm up to Greyson. They were still weary of him, but their curiosity got the better of them. Halley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with this newcomer, she didn’t even want to stay in the same room as him. Practically the whole of Saturday she spent on the balcony, only venturing inside to eat and use her litter box.

Oh dear, I thought, this is not going well. I had expected that Halley would embrace little Greyson as a friend, since they are both kittens. Admittedly, Halley is 10 months old and Greyson is 8 weeks old, but technically they are both kittens.

Then suddenly on Sunday Halley had a change of heart. Not only did she come inside, she actually sought out Greyson and started keeping an eye on him.

Today, a week later, Halley and Greyson are inseparable. Don’t ask me what happened but as from last Monday those two are the best of friends. Where you see Greyson, you see Halley, where you see Halley you see Greyson and on the rare occasion that Greyson makes a dash for freedom, Halley goes looking for him.

Just goes to show, I didn’t follow the new pet introduction rules, but as predicted, everything turned out to be okay.

Day 128: Not the subtlest way to approach a lady

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 128: Not the subtlest way to approach a lady

Where it comes to love, every living being has a different approach to getting themselves noticed. Some people have a bold and confident approach while others prefer something more discreet.

In the animal world, it’s not much different. Some birds will sing their little hearts out to get the feathered apple of their eye to glance their way, mammals will strut their stuff in the hope that the love of their life will agree to a date, while fishes will even change color to make themselves more attractive.

As for cats … they have their own mating ritual. Many, many years ago we had a cat called Mona. When the time came for her to choose a mate (this was before spaying became necessary) several handsome male cats would come strolling into our yard. Mona would give them the cold shoulder or worse, hiss at them.

That is until one particular cat made an appearance and then Mona would go all gaga over him. She would visibly perk up at the sight of this cat, walk up to him with her tail held high, followed by lots of rolling around on the patio.

Nowadays, responsible pet owners have their pets spayed or neutered, and even though that controls the pet population, it would seem that female cats can still fall in love.

Take Halley for instance. When she was adopted from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother in January of this year, she instantly bonded with Charlotte, one of our resident cats. They would sleep together, eat together, and play together whether Charlotte was in the mood or not. Where you saw Charlotte, you saw Halley; where you saw Halley, you saw Charlotte.

The months passed and while Halley is still rather fond of Charlotte it seems that she transferred some of her affections to Gabriel. The reason is rather obvious. When Halley joined our family, she was a three-month-old baby and she was looking for a mama figure in our household. Now that she’s grown into a young lady, she’s developed an interest in boys and has fallen head over heels in love with the only boy in our house ... Gabriel. Of course, the path to true love is never easy and while Halley is a pretty young thing, a big strapping young lad as Gabriel is, he’s playing hard to get.

When Halley follows him around, making soft purring noises, he acts like he doesn’t hear or see her. When she wants to curl up with him, he moves. When she wants to rub noses, he will indulge her for a few seconds and then hiss or walk away. Halley is not easily discouraged though, I can tell by her attitude and persistence that she’s going to get her man, no matter how many times he gives her the cold shoulder or sends her the message that he's not interested.

However, in all fairness to Gabriel, and before you feel sorry for Halley, he did approach her once or twice to sniff her rear end and she was having none of it. As I told Gabriel afterward … not the subtlest way to approach a lady.

Where this love affair is going remains a mystery though, Gabriel being neutered and Halley being spayed. If it's not lust, it must be love, true love.

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