Caring for a cat

My family has had our cat since I was at least five years old till I was almost twenty-three. We got her from a friendly family we have known for quite some time when we lived in Williston, ND when she was just a little kitten. We decided to give her the name Silky because she felt like silk and she shedded all over the place. When all of us kids were home, we took turns holding her and sometimes had fights over who got to play with her.

We set her on piles of blankets that were either spread on the floor or in nice and neat folded piles on the sofa or our beds. She even sat or laid down on any kind of paper that was laying around the house which was newspapers, journals, or homework of any kind. We gave her toys to play with, but she grew up and did not like the toys we were giving her. She played with pieces of string that were yarn, sewing thread, and shoe laces. She scratched on our shoes or the sofa whenever she wanted us to give her attention.

As we gathered together for mealtimes, she sat at someone's side and cried until she was able to get a plate of leftovers to lick. When we were all out of the house, she got rather lonely for the want of companionship because we were not there to care for her all the time. We all grew up and went to school and to work all over the place, and that left Silky alone some of the time.

We have moved several times in the past several years, and Silky had a tough time with the moves. She was not used to traveling in the car very much, and she got motion sickness. When we moved all our belongings into a new house, she ran and hid herself before she got used to her surroundings. We went to school and to work every day, and we came home with tons of homework to get done.

Silky came up to one of us and sat down right on our homework as if to say, "Don't do your homework; pay attention to me!" We watched tons of movies from our entertainment collection and sat at the computer alot, and she sat right on our laps crying for attention. We graduated from school one by one and took turns leaving home for college, and soon I was the only one to care for Silky. I fed her the kind of cat food that was made for sensitive aged cats like her. I brushed her every day when she ate her food in the mornings.

I scooped out the unwanted yuck from her litter box every day and changed the litter disinfecting the litter box. I held her every day whenever I was home from work for the day for as long as my arms were able to carry her. I slept on my bed or the sofa having her sit on top of me comforting me. She came up to me and cried for attention whenever I was exercising. I became her mother and she bacame my baby.

We have had company over to our home several times within the last several years, and Silky was just not used to having strangers or children come up to her for the fear of being mistreated by them. She even did not want to be around when my sisters and their families came to visit because she did not like children and their behavior towards her. She herself grew to be rather old with many health issues. She had many fatiguing moments that are hard to describe in the perfect details.

I was at work for several hours of the day, and she just got sick and lonely because I was not around to care for her. What I do remember well is that whenever I was in tears about some issue whatever I was facing, I either scooped her up in my arms and held her or she came to me while I was crying on my bed. She became my guardian angel because I held her and cared for her while she also held me and comforted me. Doing her cat litter got to be a rather huge mess after a while, and brushing her was fatiguing because she always bit her fur and shed it all over the house. Silky was just like a sensitive human who needed much care and attention and love from someone she knew very well.

It was just like caring for my own baby. She has made many messes around the house for one reason or another. We put her outside ourselves or she would cry to be let outside, but she always came back for attention from someone she knew thoroughly. The time in July 2010 finally came when I had to make the decision for my mother to put her down because she was so old and deteriorated enough that she did not know us anymore. I tried to hold her one more time before I went to work, but she backed away from me. I had no choice but to make the decision with my parents to put her down because I could not see her deteriorate in front of me anymore than she had. I will always remember the good times I had raising my own pet cat because she was my angel and my baby.