Remembering Our Cats
This is the section of Catness where we can all reminisce about our departed feline friends.
Bruce and I have had a few cats since we got together. The first one, Shiat-su, a cute black puss, I couldn’t locate any good photos of.
We adopted Shiat-su from a couple who were leaving Canada forever and going to live on a farm in Israel. They wanted to make sure that Shiat-su had a good home.
We accepted Shiat-su into our home and got her and our then dog, Tasha, acquained. That part took a while, but eventually they got to at least tolerate one another, and sometimes even share a spot in the sun on the carpet.
I think it was 2 years later, the family returned, said Israel had not worked out and asked for, no demanded, their cat back. We were shocked and quite annoyed. Shiat-su had now settled in and seemed to like her new home and we had become very fond of her in that time.
We had a neighbourhood confab about it, where all the neighbours (all cat people) said no way we should give Shiat-su up. We stood firm inspite of veiled and not so veiled threats from the former owners, and Shiat-su remained with us.
Shiat-su was fond of racing around the house at night, leaping up into the bedroom window and howling, and attacking our feet after we were asleep.
Several years after we adopted Shiat-su, we found Anubis, the Jackal cat, hiding under a car on a cold and snowy day. We brought him home of course. He at first was pleasant and playful to Shiat-su but as time went by fell into bullying her.
We kept them apart as much as possible, but things got worse over time.
We discovered from our vet that Shiat-su had kidney disease and that Anubis was probably looking at her as a threat to the food chain. Anubis took this threat very seriously and it got so bad we actually had to give each of them a separate part of the house, and make sure we spent equal time with both.
Eventually, Shiat-su became too sick to even eat, and with deep regret. we decided to send her over the rainbow bridge.
