Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Cat Countdown Begins
For those of you who have been following along, last year I moved from Seattle down to Houston to stay with my brother for awhile. I had a lot of pets, because I’m a sucker, but part of the agreement was that I could bring one pet with me during my year at my brother’s house. The rest of my pets I would have to find homes for.
I handed my fish, aquarium, equipment and all, to a friend in Seattle and I found a new home for my dog. It wasn’t until after I got to Houston that I found a home for my two rats and I also found a temporary care-giver for two of my three cats. One cat stayed with me, the one you see in the banner, the one who this blog/journal is named after.
It has been over a year now, I’m in a new place and I’ve been missing all of my pets a lot. A lot, a lot. Heart breaking, gut wrenching, guilt ridden, a lot.
The fish has expired, one of the rats expired and the other one will stay with her new owners as apparently, cute, cuddly, adorable rodents are not looked upon with a lot of welcome here. The dog has probably the best home I could ever hope to find for her....and as much as I spoiled the hell out of that pooch, I actually think that where she is now is even better. She has a hyper active kid to play with that will match her own hyper active ways and another dog to play with and two adults who adore her. One of the two cats is actually going to stay with the person who was taking care of her for me because she really is a cat who doesn’t like being around a lot of people and a lot of noise. She’s very sweet and mellow and prefers her living arrangements to be likewise. Additionally, she and Serenity weren’t the best of pals. They got on well enough but I don’t think either one is sad that the other is no longer there. Besides, he has done such an excellent job in taking care of them and he’s been smitten so I feel it’s in everyone’s best interest that this one cat stay with him.
Which brings me to my final cat. I’ve been missing this cat like nobody’s business. I’ve spent many sleepless nights thinking about this cat, the guilt overwhelming me at times, and it has been an extraordinarily painful year being away from him. Additionally, when I was getting ready to leave Seattle, he knew something was up that he wasn’t going to like and he did everything in his power to make me re-think my decision. And he almost won. But I knew I had to try and that it would be a year and that we would be reunited one day.
And that day is coming in 23 days from today. On November 19th, I will have my cat, Xaxu, back with me. Xaxu is pronounced Shaw-Shoe and the name comes from an Ethiopian dialect meaning panther. I got the spelling from a Brazilian children’s show entertainer named Xuxa...just mixed up the letters and you have my little panther, Xaxu.
This is what I will be hugging profusely in 23 days:
I cannot wait. There have been several times in the past year where I have doubted whether or not I made the right decision but I know, once I get Xaxu back, it will have all been worthwhile.
Coming up in the next days: SOFT photo/captioning, my very own “ghost” stories for Halloween and more cat countdown.
Also, should we actually know who the President is on close of business, November 3rd, I will be covering that as well. As soon as the President is named, (Bush...yes, we know), I will cease political blogging. Stay tuned.
