Daily Diary, Day 1169: My Pets
Yesterday I decided that between now and December 25, I would start to post or repost pieces talking about my Favorite Things. The following is a repost of one of the 15 favorite things I wrote about last year. It seemed as good place as any to start since its Monday which we refer to as Rio Day in our household when the Border Collie Rio comes to play.
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. Here is a picture of the Boston Terrier, Sammy, and the wolfhound Ellie when we first got her.
The second is of the two of them when Ellie was grown!
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 5), 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.
In case you aren’t sure how you got here, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. This is my newsletter reflecting on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. If you aren’t already subscribed but are interested in doing so, you can subscribe by clicking the little button below. If you enjoyed this post, please do click on the little heart and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments!
Pets bring so much to our lives. We too, had a cat which we named Jess, short for Jessica. She was a rescue cat. I got her for my son really, so that he'd have a pet to grow up with. Jess eventually died of cancer. My daughter (9 years younger than my son), grew up with Leo, a cocker spaniel who died of a brain tumour when he was 12. There were several others, the last one being Bertie, a French basset hound. He died just two years ago aged 14. Yes, it's painful when they leave us, however that happens. I enjoyed reading about your pets.
I really enjoyed reading about your pets. Leeza is a beautiful dog!