City Cats

Lynn Patrick and Sheena and Magic...

Sheena was a country kitten before I adopted her during Christmas week 2003. My sister had seen a notice for “free kittens” in a local Iowa newspaper and told me about it when I visited my family for the holidays (I live in Chicago). We drove far out into the country and down a private lane where there was a small house and a kind woman who had quite a few cats and several dogs, all rescues she was taking care of. It was love at first sight when I saw my little orange girl and we brought her home.

Sheena as Pharoah

The next day I took Sheena to the vet for de-worming, ear mites, and shots. I was staying with my mother and I worried that the cat might bother her, so I locked the kitty in the laundry room that night, Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, half-asleep, I woke to hear soft beating on my closed bedroom door. I wondered if my mother was playing a trick on me. However, the soft pounding continued, accompanied by what sounded like “ooh’s” and the door opened after a few minutes. But no one came in! No one human anyway. Surprised, I turned over in bed to come face-to-face with an orange, purring, fuzzy ball of affection. Sheena had come to tell me she was my Christmas present. Though my mother had let her out of the laundry room in the middle of the night and my mother’s bedroom door was open, Sheena knew who her person was and was willing to beat the door down to get to me.

Sheena made the journey back to Chicago in my rental car and has been leaping on my bed every morning since. She made friends with my old kitties before they passed on and trained the new addition to our family, Magic.

Since moving to the city, Sheena has become a bit punk or edgy (note photo of her as Pharaoh) and won a prize from Nicole Hollander (Sylvia Comics). See http://edgycat.com/contest.html

Magic aka Magical Mystery Paws

Magic, short for Magical Mystery Paws, is a large 15 pound torti whom I got from a rescue organization in Chicago in 2006. I found her in a PetSmart with her sister, both several months old. The two kittens had been “donated” to a cat rescue society by owners who brought them in imprisoned in a large bird cage. I adopted Magic that very day and her sister went to another woman with several cats. Once home, Magic liked her new surroundings but was very needy . . . and still is. She will wake up, discover I’m out of sight, and run through the apartment mewing desperately until she finds me. Like all cats, she likes to “hide,” but, unlike many cats, she thinks she’s out of sight if her head is stuck in a blouse sleeve (with the rest of her body outside) or under the bed. Magic helps me write and lies on the desk while I’m at the computer. In fact, I put a box on the desk for her but she’d rather be right in front of me, in place of the keyboard, so we go around and around from time to time as to who gets what space.

I think Magic also likes Country Music, since I woke in the middle of the night one time to find her on my computer desk with a Dixie Chicks CD playing loudly. She had her ears back but wasn’t going anywhere. I have no idea how the CD got turned on – busy paws?

Lynn Patrick

Two Happy Endings

Patricia Rosemoor and Blossom and Blitzen...

Blossom aka MsB

Blossom, or MsB as I call her, is now eleven. I got her from PAWSChicago when she was five and I was volunteering in Kitty City. I mostly write on my laptop now, and she doesn’t try to get between it and me, but when I use my desktop computer to work on my website or build a new cover, she definitely jumps on the desk to see what I’m doing.

For a couple of years, it was just MsB and me. Then I fostered Blitzen (also known as Bgrrl) from PAWSChicago. MsB retreated to my bedroom, and worse, my closet. But I didn’t have the heart to NOT adopt Blitzen, who thought I was okay but really, really loved the apartment. She was so happy here, I knew it would break her little heart if I sent her back. So, with faith that they would someday become friends, I adopted her, as well, a few days before Christmas.

Blitzen aka Bgrrl

Blossom continued to be moody and reclusive, striking out at Blitzen if she tried to play with her. It was many months later before I found out why MsB had changed so drastically. She was sick. She went into the vet for dentistry and came out with a double mastectomy after they found a lump in her breast - and yes, it was cancer. I didn’t know if she would survive. Now, a year later, MsB is healthy and the girl she was when I brought her home. Even better, she and Bgrrl (who is four) amuse me by chasing each other around the apartment.

I’m so glad I could give them both happy endings.

Patricia Rosemoor

From the Catio

Rebecca York and Ozzie and Beevel...

Last year I read an article in the New York Times that changed my life. It was about city dwellers who constructed “catios,” safe places for their cats to enjoy the outdoors. Basically they were decks or patios enclosed with mesh or screen where cats could safely take the air.

Ozzie looking out the "catio" door

I thought it was a great idea and decided to try it. Cautiously starting with a test run, I bought one of those ten-foot-square pavilion tents with fabric screens. I set it up on the patio outside the sliding glass door to the walk-out basement and used bricks to hold the screen sides down. I positioned it directly against the house so that cats and I could walk right out into the tent. The two adventurous cats, Ozzie and Beevel, followed me out immediately. Ozzie is a female rescued part-Maine-Coon. Beevel is an Abyssinian, the daughter of two grand champions but not quite show quality. The scaredy-cat, Harriet (Ozzie’s daughter), ran screaming from the strange new contraption. I brought her out and held her in my lap. She was doing okay until a gust of wind blew the top of the tent around. In response, she promptly peed in my lap.

But I didn’t give up on her, and soon all three cats were coming out on the catio with me. Since the idea was a success, I went on to the next step–hiring a contractor to build a screened porch in place of the tent.

Harriet & Ozzie with Mom

The four of us are sitting on our catio porch now. It has turned out to be a high point in the cats’ lives and also a wonderful place for me to sit and write, outside with no bugs and pretty scenery. I have always loved gardening, and the catio plans included some garden modifications. A friend helped me construct a fishpond with a waterfall. (No, I do not let the cats go fishing.) As I sit here with the cats, I’m listening to the sound of running water and looking up from time to time at the greenery around me.

All three cats are relaxing at the moment. Other favorite activities out here include sunning and watching birds and squirrels.

Rebecca York
On Writing Romance blog