Padme, Princess I’m A Dolly Kitty
curls next to my laptop. Her spots for snoozing move around the house, changing
periodically. I don’t know if the warmth from my computer draws her to my side,
of if she enjoys the indulgent head rubs and chin scratching I throw her way as
I write. Either way, she now spends a chunk of her day dozing by my side.
I love telling the story on how
Padme joined our family. We’d gone out of town for Memorial Day weekend, and
had left my son’s iguana in his cage by the back patio doors so he could have
light. I’d placed a book on the top, just to make certain he didn’t pop off the
screen. However, I didn’t think about our cat, Sassy, deciding to free the
iguana. When we returned home, the cage sat open and empty.
We spent days searching for the
iguana with no luck. I’d warned my son that one day we’d move something in a closet
and probably find his mummified corpse. Not a pleasant idea, but part of life
when you have small pets like reptiles and rodents. After a few days of
searching, we decided to head to Polly’s Pet Shop and pick out another iguana.
Of course, no one can enter a pet
store and not swing by the puppies and kittens. We’ve stood outside those
windows hundreds of times and never felt the urge to bring one home, but on
that day two kittens wrestled in a tangle of newspaper. My son fell in love
with both of them. Since we already had another cat and a dog at home, I told
him he could only bring home one. It broke our hearts to know that we would
separate the kittens, but . . .
Padme entered out home in a
non-descript brown box. We wanted to surprise my husband, who expected us to
return with an iguana, not a kitten. His surprise to find a ball of fur instead
of something sleek and green made us laugh.
We quickly realized that Padme’s
small size made her an easy target for moving feet. One night, my husband
stepped on her head, sending her into convulsions. One of our guests for dinner
that night had experience as a vet tech, and he felt certain she was fine, but
we rushed her to the pet ER just in case. After that incident, she always wore
a bell!
Our Padme’s very outgoing. Many
people thought we only had one cat because our other cat tucked herself away
whenever company came. But not Padme. She’d stroll up to someone, bat them with
her paw, or head bump in affection. Her wild mane drew everyone’s attention,
her personality kept everyone under her spell.
Last year, when our other cat died,
Padme stopped eating. Her grief worried all of us. I moved her bowls into the
kitchen to monitor her eating. By this summer, I headed back to the same pet
shop for their advice on the best foods for elderly cats. She nibbles on dry
Instinct—rabbit, duck, or chicken—throughout the day. And her special treat
comes in lamb, pork or pheasant three times a day. She’s desperately thin, even
after months on this diet, but she is gradually regaining weight. So I take full advantage of Padme resting next to my computer because I don’t know how many years she has left. At nearly fourteen, she’s “getting up there.” She still loves to play and still draws attention to her when company comes since she is such a princess.
Copyright 2013 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
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