This week marks the first full seven days in a row I have spent living with my fiance, without interruption. I was taking care of a neighbors dog for a week and found it more convenient to stay on the Mesa than go to the condo for overnight escape. Milestone.
Lots going on: adjusting to the loss of our beloved dog Sasha at 17, cleaning up her bed, dish and saying goobye to her locks of hair on the carpet. It is with a bittersweet feeling we saw the two cats I brought into the household venture upstairs in the house, sensing the lack of the dog Sasha, and more space for them to explore more freely.
I felt the knots in my stomach come and go, and attributed it to a busy schedule and missing Sasha. Then there was Felix busting out of his catio and going AWOL...found at the back door calmly meowing for his breakfast. We have decided Felix is an indoor ourdoor cat, which makes me nervous but is apparently inevitable.
Then Felix proved his prowess as a mightly hunter by devouring 1/2 a rat or gopher, the pitious remains of which were found yesterday.
There is nothing more certain than change, they say, and I have learned to embrace changes with gentleness, humor, love and respect, for both myself and my fiance, as we settle into life together. Realizing what a good life we have and how much we appreciate each other is a new discovery every day.
The plans for the wedding have alll been made, logistics to come up and be finalized as the December day approaches. So day by day I enjoy this time, where things are new, discoveries made every day as we blend out lives together.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Sasha the Dog
My fiance has had one other love besides me, as long as I've known him, his elderly dog Sasha. At 17 Sasha's age equaled over 100 human years. She made her transition to doggie heaven yesterday, bless her heart and soul. We are sad today, but know that everything is as it should be.
Sasha was more cute and precious every day for the 1 1/2 years that I knew her. She accompanied my fiance and me on our first date, a dog walk at Shoreline Park. One thing that drew my fiance to me, he says, is how kind I was to Sasha.
She was an arthritic Golden Retriever with curly hair, easy to be kind to. Our joke is that my fiance is taken with curly haired red-heads, as I have curly red hair also...we have save some locks of Sasha's curly hair, trimmed from her before she was put to sleep at our home by a compassionate vet yesterday.
Today dawns bright and clear and we have a space in our house where Sasha used to roam. Our hearts are full of memories of our beautiful old girl however, and I cannot help but notice how the cats are already wandering upstairs, looking for Sasha, smelling her collar which remains behind her as a momento. The cats now have free run of the entire house, though our good old Sasha was no threat to them ever, being very kind and also blind, she was always more interested in their cat food than anything else.
We'll miss you Sasha and you will run free and live in our hearts forever.
Sasha was more cute and precious every day for the 1 1/2 years that I knew her. She accompanied my fiance and me on our first date, a dog walk at Shoreline Park. One thing that drew my fiance to me, he says, is how kind I was to Sasha.
She was an arthritic Golden Retriever with curly hair, easy to be kind to. Our joke is that my fiance is taken with curly haired red-heads, as I have curly red hair also...we have save some locks of Sasha's curly hair, trimmed from her before she was put to sleep at our home by a compassionate vet yesterday.
Today dawns bright and clear and we have a space in our house where Sasha used to roam. Our hearts are full of memories of our beautiful old girl however, and I cannot help but notice how the cats are already wandering upstairs, looking for Sasha, smelling her collar which remains behind her as a momento. The cats now have free run of the entire house, though our good old Sasha was no threat to them ever, being very kind and also blind, she was always more interested in their cat food than anything else.
We'll miss you Sasha and you will run free and live in our hearts forever.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Love and Cats
Moving my two cats (as well as myself) in to live with my fiance has been at times stressful, but overall pretty fun and rewarding. Then there was yesterday....
My cellphone rang. It was my fiance, sounding calm like he sounds when something is going on but he's being his calm self about it anyway. "Princess escaped outside." OMG I thought to myself, my indoor kitty has busted out, and it was my fault.
I had scheduled housecleaners to come in and clean the downstairs cat domain (two bedrooms and one bath) for that day. I had planned it so I would be gone when they cleaned, so I wouldn't have to deal with the noise and craziness. But what about the cats? I had left the cats to deal with the noise and craziness, and one of them had escaped outside the safety of the nuptual abode into foreign, unknown territory. I was distraught, but tried to imitate my fiance's calm approach. "I'm in Goleta," I said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."
15 minutes later I was at the house, and found my fiance in the jacuzzi. He had seen one of the cats, Princess, running free in the backyard, which was not ok as they are indoor cats and have never been out into the wilds of the Mesa neighborhood. I called for Princess, I looked under the deck where he said she was last seen. No sign of her.
I went inside to talk to the cleaners, they were clueless that anything was wrong. It was then that I discovered that Princess was safely hiding under the bed, a look of calm boredom on her face. It was the other cat Felix that was AWOL--they are both black and my fiance did not get a good look.
I went outside calling the name of the correct missing cat at this point, and was soon rewarded by hearing Felix' pitious cry. I climbed around the deck and found him near the backyard fence, looking scared and desperate. The cat, that is. Though I was probably looking scared and desperate also, because that's how I felt too.
"Come here Felix," I said in my most beguiling tone. Felix' eyes darted about. He was about 10 feet from me. He looked at the fence. Was he eyeing the hole in the fence, I wondered? Would he bolt, go through the hole, lose himself and never be seen again?
Fate intervened along with a divine force: he walked toward me and into my arms. I scooped him up gently. I had not been so relieved since I finally found a pair of wedding shoes that fit. I walked back toward the house, glad for all the cat handling training I had from working as a vollunteer at the local cat shelter. I scruffed him gently as he wiggled around and told him what a good boy he was.
My fiance was visibly relieved to see us together. Later, with Felix safe inside, I thanked my fiance for his quick thinking in calling me, and thanked God Felix had come to me, and not run away. I felt terrible that Felix had been so terrified, but glad that love had held us all together and we solved the problem as a family. And don't worry, next time the cleaners come with their vacuum and loud noise, I will be there at the house to comfort anyone who is scared, including myself.
My cellphone rang. It was my fiance, sounding calm like he sounds when something is going on but he's being his calm self about it anyway. "Princess escaped outside." OMG I thought to myself, my indoor kitty has busted out, and it was my fault.
I had scheduled housecleaners to come in and clean the downstairs cat domain (two bedrooms and one bath) for that day. I had planned it so I would be gone when they cleaned, so I wouldn't have to deal with the noise and craziness. But what about the cats? I had left the cats to deal with the noise and craziness, and one of them had escaped outside the safety of the nuptual abode into foreign, unknown territory. I was distraught, but tried to imitate my fiance's calm approach. "I'm in Goleta," I said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."
15 minutes later I was at the house, and found my fiance in the jacuzzi. He had seen one of the cats, Princess, running free in the backyard, which was not ok as they are indoor cats and have never been out into the wilds of the Mesa neighborhood. I called for Princess, I looked under the deck where he said she was last seen. No sign of her.
I went inside to talk to the cleaners, they were clueless that anything was wrong. It was then that I discovered that Princess was safely hiding under the bed, a look of calm boredom on her face. It was the other cat Felix that was AWOL--they are both black and my fiance did not get a good look.
I went outside calling the name of the correct missing cat at this point, and was soon rewarded by hearing Felix' pitious cry. I climbed around the deck and found him near the backyard fence, looking scared and desperate. The cat, that is. Though I was probably looking scared and desperate also, because that's how I felt too.
"Come here Felix," I said in my most beguiling tone. Felix' eyes darted about. He was about 10 feet from me. He looked at the fence. Was he eyeing the hole in the fence, I wondered? Would he bolt, go through the hole, lose himself and never be seen again?
Fate intervened along with a divine force: he walked toward me and into my arms. I scooped him up gently. I had not been so relieved since I finally found a pair of wedding shoes that fit. I walked back toward the house, glad for all the cat handling training I had from working as a vollunteer at the local cat shelter. I scruffed him gently as he wiggled around and told him what a good boy he was.
My fiance was visibly relieved to see us together. Later, with Felix safe inside, I thanked my fiance for his quick thinking in calling me, and thanked God Felix had come to me, and not run away. I felt terrible that Felix had been so terrified, but glad that love had held us all together and we solved the problem as a family. And don't worry, next time the cleaners come with their vacuum and loud noise, I will be there at the house to comfort anyone who is scared, including myself.
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