Sunday Salute - Remembering Callie

*Sigh* I still can't believe my sweet Callie girl is gone. All things considered, it all happened so fast -- about 12 days from noticing she wasn't acting quite right until we lost her -- and it's just been such a shock. I'm not really sure it's even sunk in yet that she's gone for good, since she was away from home several of those days but then came back for a few days. Surely she'll be back home again in a couple of days, right? But no. Well, at least only her cremated remains will be. I ordered the urn yesterday, a rock-looking urn with a nameplate just like Tigger and Felix have. Right now, I keep them inside, but maybe eventually I'll start a memorial garden outside and put them all out there to oversee things (part of why I got a rock-looking thing originally for Felix and then Tigger...just never have done anything garden-y about it since then; I have black thumbs, not green!).

I want to thank everyone who has offered support during this tough time, through all the long days of her illness and not knowing what was wrong and her not eating, offering suggestions to get her to eat, etc., and of course since we lost her. You cats and woofies and gals and guys are the absolute best, and every comment and email and post has been so very greatly appreciated. It's amazing to see how much Callie was loved in the bloggie-sphere.

Of course, I knew what a special and sweet kitty she was. I've had her since she was an itty bitty kitty. Although she was about 2 months old before she, along with Bugsy and Sassy, became a permanent indoor kitten with me and my ex, we had some contact with her before that as well; her feral momma (who she looked just like) birthed her and the others in our garage. We were able to catch the kittens a few times, but momma would always move them again. At that point, we hadn't particularly planned on adopting and keeping them but as winter crept up, we decided to; thus, their December 1 Gotcha Day.

For 6 years, Callie has been a wonderful kitty; never mean, always wanting to spend time in my lap or curled up next to me on the couch. While not aggressive towards any of the other cats, she was always ready to hold her own in a fight if needed, especially against Pixie the Pest. She'd get tired of him picking on her after awhile, though, and would often go hide in the bedroom in the evenings with Sassy (who hides for the same reason). Mostly I think they were just hoping to get to stay in the room overnight, which I rarely allow (too many cats in the house means no sleep for The Mommy if I let them in the bedroom at night!). But, she did get to sleep in with me on her last night in the house and a couple of other nights last week too, so I feel good about letting her do that.

She loved boxes, I've left this one box on the floor with a layer of bubble wrap in it that she adored sleeping in. She also just couldn't get enough of Peggy's hairy blankies, she was on those all the time. She would go outside when we had our outside evenings (a carefully snoopervised hour or so when it's not too hot and not too cold and not raining and so on), but it would usually take her a bit before she'd be brave enough to go, and she'd jump at every noise in the neighborhood -- but then she'd get really brave and get nearly to the street or across the driveway exploring!I had to keep a close eye on her. She was my picky picky eater; she didn't much like canned stinky goodness and rarely would eat it when offered as a special treat. And when I changed their dry food over the summer from 'regular' food found in basic stores to more healthy dry food, I had to go through several kinds to find some she would eat along with everyone else.

She had such beautiful colors, and when caught just right in the sun, she could be truly breathtaking. I'd never had a tortoiseshell or calico kitty before -- thus her rather unimaginative name "Callie" because we thought her coloring was what a calico was! Funny comment, when I took her to Dr. Surgeon Vet on Friday morning, when he walked in the door, he said, "Callie, huh? I take it she's a calico?" And I had to laugh and tell him the story about how stupid I was, not knowing which coloring was a tortie and which was a calico.

I have quite a few photos of her that were in the 'images to use' folder that just hadn't been gotten to yet, and more from the last couple of weeks as well. Don't worry, I won't post them all at once or even individually; I put together several collages. But just so you know that there will be some more memories of Callie coming up in the next few weeks, so don't be confused.

For now, I'll leave you with this one collage of photos from her last few days. At the second upper left, she's in her box of bubble wrap that she loved so much. All the ones on the right side are from her last night at home. And the big photo in the lower right is the very last photo taken of her. (You may want to biggify to see them better.)

Goodbye, my sweet Callie Boo, you will be greatly missed.



PS - We still may not get around to visit much, or post much, this week between this, The Mommy's work, and the holidays. In case we don't see you before then, please have a safe and very happy holiday, and a very Meowy Chrismouse from our house to yours!!