A Tribute to Baby Girl the 5 Pound Black Cat

Being snuggled on Monday

Wearing her diaper

Asleep on my (her) chair

Getting a better view

I want to be close to you...

Sneaking a drink of Bob's coffee

Basking in the warm sunshine

Giving and getting some lovin'

It was the most relaxing Mother's Day weekend I had - May of 1999 - boy that seems forever ago... For some reason it was just Ginna and I, and we couldn't go anywhere - I think we must have been without a vehicle. But I was very happy. Just the day before we picked up Baby Girl from a friend, who due to her allergies, had to give up both her cats, and was also moving to the southwest. Baby Girl was her son Lee's cat - he had given her that name at birth. She was born in the fall of 1991 and came to live with us in May of 1999.

It felt like a little blessing - she was a lap kitty and a little love bug - and she attached herself to me. I used to say she was God's way of letting me hold a baby girl, for a little longer. And want to be held, she did. She would paw at my robe, sweater, anything that was open at the front to crawl inside and snuggle. Sometimes I would tuck the waistband of my sweater into my pants and she would ride around inside while I did the dishes or folded laundry. At age 11, she became really ill, and also was suffering from acute renal failure. During this time she became very attached to my husband Bob. She fought her way out of this trouble and so now she had claimed both of us. One night I was deeply asleep, but Bob was having a night mare - thrashing and moaning. Baby Girl jumped on his back, pawed at his neck, and 'barked' at him to get him to wake up. She did not want to see him in distress.

She weighed 5 or 6 pounds most of her life - for this reason, Baby Girl was an appropriate name. However - she fought like a wildcat when it came to giving her any kind of medication. It was then that she turned into the biggest drama queen - foaming at the mouth when you had to give her pills or liquid meds, and the entire time she was in kidney failure she never let us give her subcutaneous fluids. She was the noisiest on the stairs - you could always hear her little thump, thump, thump, as she came down them and she had the funniest way of skulking or slinking around the house.

Baby Girl was a perfect name for her, but she earned other nicknames - Slink for the way she walked, Princess for her bearing and attitude, Semi-Sweet not only for her personality but also her coloring - black, but in the sunlight she looked the deepest darkest brown too, and Velvet for her fur - short and ever so soft - burying your face in her neck was the best.

In January of this year she had a femoral clot - essentially a stroke for cats. We had to start giving her aspirin and high blood pressure medication, and she had to start wearing a diaper at night, but she battled her way out of this setback too. She constantly amazed us with her will power and determination.

On Monday of this week, Bob happened to be home for lunch - and she suffered a seizure. He held her until he had to get back to work. While he was holding her Abby, our black Lab came over to sniff her to see what was wrong and gave her a lick. I got home a little later that day. She had another milder seizure, I gave her some pain medication, wrapped her up in a blanket and held her. I held her while I fed Sweet Pea, Donkey, the chickens and John, the rabbit. Ginna warmed up dinner so I could hold Baby Girl. She was being held by one of us continually that evening.

She passed out of this world into the next while I held and snuggled her in my arms. I told her to look out - because for sure Jiji, would be waiting around the corner ready to pounce on her when she least expected it. The next morning, Bob had the prettiest little grave dug. all lined with sweet smelling golden straw, and a little concrete angel ready to place on top her grave. We buried her under Callie's pussy willow - the perfect resting place for Baby Girl.