loved by many

Sunday was a very sad day here. I had to part with a sweet little companion named Twiggy.

I wish the photo showed her beautiful blue eyes, which were crossed, which so endeared her to me.

I inherited her at the ranch. She belonged to Suzanne who passed away when Twiggy was just a baby girl herself. Over the years, there's been many cats who have come and gone, but Chief Wiggums, as Caroline called her out lived them all. She was the most tenacious cat ever. A little slip of a thing, all the bigger manlier cats cowered in her presence.

She was a little bit like a dog, in that she greeted me when I came home with Siamese meows. It was a very sad day when she and I didn't communicate very well, and when I thought she'd gotten out of the way, and she thought I stopped, I ran over her with my car. We raced to the vet, and that girl lived on. One would never have known, except her right hip jutted out a little more than her left after that. I kept her in the house, carefully supervised for 2 months after that. Before the accident, there were times I couldn't get her out of the house. After her 2 months of confinement, she was so mad. The first thing she did when I finally let her outside was to run up to the big house and climb up to the roof. I think she wanted to be good and sure everyone knew she was fine, and nothing was going to hold her back.

I did discover through that visit to the vet that she was in the beginning stages of kidney failure, and they didn't think she would live that much longer regardless of the accident. She lived over a year more. Long enough for Caroline to return from Scotland and spend a little more time with her.

She charmed nearly everyone who came around. Some people couldn't help but just laugh at her crossed eyes. She had that curious cat habit of finding the least cat friendly person in the room and jumping on their lap. She was convinced that she belonged there, and somehow, she did. One scratch under the chin, and her motor was running. Everyone has a pet that is the sweetest best most wonderful pet; but she really was a special girl, and has a big fan club to prove it.

She was such a part of the fabric of my life. It's odd to come home, and not be greeted. I was very blessed to have her. I think she's somewhere happy now, eating as many cat treats as she wants, catching mice and generally charming the heavenly host.