December 12, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 832: My Favorite Thing #6

I started out thinking I would make this a post just about our current dog, Leeza, being one of my favorite things, but pretty quickly decided to honor all of the pets in my life. All of them in one way or another have brought me continuing joy, as well as the heartache that came with losing them.

First, when I was 4 or 5 years old, there was a gray tabby, Suzy Cat (always referred to that way, I have no idea why—wasn’t as if there was another animal in our house when we got her.) She had a couple of litters of kittens--that was back before there was an effort to stop the over-population of cats-and she was an excellent mother and mouser. One of my most vivid memories was watching her drop a stunned mouse in front of her kittens, and showing them how to catch it.

As she was aging, my parents got a Boston Terrier puppy, Misty, and she was my closest companion until I went away to college. I think as the only child, shy around other kids, having a pet like Misty was doubly important. I never felt alone with her.

Then in college, my future husband and I adopted an orange tabby, we named Thelonious, for Thelonious Monk. Sadly, after five years, when we moved out to California for a job where we couldn’t have a cat (we were dorm parents for a year), we had to leave him behind. This was a lesson in life, having to accept that sometimes what life gives you in going to require some hard decisions.

For the next seven years we moved around a lot, always renting, always in places where we couldn’t have pets. As soon as we had a place where we could have a cat, we got a rescue cat, Jeremiah. However a year later we were moving, again to a place where we weren’t sure we could have a pet, so we rehomed this cat with friends.

After that move, as soon as we could, we got two kittens, and we have never been without pets since then (about 35 years.) These kittens were not littermates, but acted as if they were. They were Jessie, an odd female calico with a stubby tail, and Jeremy, a black male we called Jeremy. They were extremely different in personality, but very good friends, and they provided the first real experience of pet ownership for our young daughter. When they were 4 or 5, our daughter made the argument that, since she didn’t remember them as kittens, we should get more kittens. My husband countered with the suggestion that we get a dog, instead.

Needless-to-say she was enthusiastic about that idea, saying if she had known we were open to getting a dog she would have asked for that. The dog we ended up getting (very long story) was an Irish Wolfhound, Maggie, who my husband had fallen instantly in love with. However, it was abundantly obvious that Maggie was way too big to be a pet for our daughter, so we almost immediately got a second dog, a Boston Terrier, Sammy, who became her companion.

We now had four animals at the same time. However, Wolfhounds don’t live long, and we lost Maggie at age 8. We missed her so much we soon got an another wolfhound, Ellie. During Ellie’s life-time, both of the cats and Sammy died of old age, but very soon after that we inherited from others, two more cats, Mila and Courtney, and a dog, Jane, and we were back to four animals.

Unfortunately, some years later, Jane died suddenly of a stomach ailment when we were out of town. Some time afterwards, when we knew Ellie didn’t have long to live, we got a seven year old rescue, a part border collie, Maisie. For a good time after that, we had the three, the dog Maisie, and the cats Courtney and Mila. They all lived good long lives, but by the second year of Covid, the cats were gone and Maisie was fading fast. Every single one of these pets brought something unique to us, and gave us joy that far outweighed the expenses of vet bills and the inconveniences of kitty litter boxes and frequent dog walks, and the heartache when we had to let them go.

That’s why, two years ago, despite our age (and the legitimate question of whether or not it was sensible to get a young dog that might outlive our ability to take care of it), we knew that we would not be happy in a home without a pet. When Courtney, our last cat, died, I had already decided I couldn’t handle kitty litter anymore, so, at least for now, no more kittens. But my husband knew that having and walking a dog was still essential to his well-being so we got another rescue, Leeza.

Leeza was a two year old when we got her (she is now 4), and the story was that she’d been rescued the fires in Texas. She arrived at the shelter in San Diego pregnant with 10 puppies. After having the puppies and a recuperating from a good number of physical problems, she was ready for adoption.

While she has her own idiosyncrasies (which I suspect are rooted in her past experiences) she has certainly become one of my favorite things. I love the fact that she is the first animal we’ve ever had that collects all her toys onto her bed. I love the fact that when you feed her, she always does this happy dance, and she looks so peaceful when she is asleep. I love the fact that she is the first dog we have ever had that enjoys a play date with another dog…in this case the border collie Rio. And I love to watch her as she stares longingly out the window waiting for my husband to return (this photo is from this morning when he had gone out to the grocery store.) I even sort of love the fact that she occasionally leaves muddy footprints on the floor, as she did this afternoon, because this is a sign that it had rained enough to create mud!

And, I would certainly like to hear about your favorite pets and what you love about them.