when i was 7, we had a cat named pounce. she was a pretty calico kitty that went in and out of the house as she pleased. my parents let her out on christmas eve in 1986 and on christmas morning went to let her in, but she wasn't there. we made all kinds of lost signs and scoured the neighborhood, but we never found her. it was not a good christmas present.
fast forward to christmas day 2008. my parents and i were at the lake house and decided to go for a canoe ride. my mom had promised another lake friend that they'd come say hi and so we took the canoe over to their place. we docked our canoe and got out. there was a very pretty little kitty outside and my mom asked if that was their cat. not only was it not their cat, but she said they were not feeding it and yet it was still hanging around. so of course, i decided that if it was just going to hang out, it should at least hang out with us at our house! my mom said no no no. she was very much against another cat. but this little kitty was so friendly. she clearly knew who the sucker of the group was. i promised not to feed her, but i just wanted to play with her... at our house. anne (the neighbor) said take her! and she even said we could use her big parrot's cage to transport the kitty. we thought the canoe would terrify the cat and be a bad idea so we canoed back to the house and took the golf cart over to her house on the premise that anne needed some celery and well i was just going to hijack the cat. i easily picked up the cat and put her in the cage where she got very very upset and scared, but we golf carted back to our house and then had an outdoor kitty to play with. my parents have two burmese cats that are fine, but they don't like me and i find them kind of boring. so i hang out with kitty and she was so sweet. she was so cuddly and such a pretty girl.
when it was dinner time, the kitty stayed outside (couldn't risk bringing her in - if she had some disease we didn't want the other cats to get it). well, the dining table is situated such that you can see right on outside... and there was the christmas kitty just sitting on the porch staring at us. i made my mom sit in the chair facing the windows so i didn't have to feel bad. after dinner, my mom's heart got the best of her and she came outside with some food. the kitty readily ate it and it was gone in about two seconds. poor little thing was starving.
when i woke up the next morning, my mom said that she'd put the christmas kitty in the screened in porch to 'keep her safe'. i knew she was hooked then! she kept bringing out food and in 24 hours that cat had eaten 5 cans of cat food! my mom agreed to bring her back and take her to the vet to see if she had a chip with an owner's info or if she had any diseases. at one point, my mom got worried that maybe she was pregnant b/c her belly was poofing out a bit. i told her no way... that she'd just fed that cat who hadn't eaten in who knows how long a ton of food. of course she has a bit of a belly pouch.
when we left the lake house, we brought the little christmas kitty with us and then took her to the vet. the vet confirmed that she was disease free, not preggers, and did not have a chip. she was ours! so we took her home and got her set up in my bedroom so she wouldn't be scared in such a big house. over dinner, we thought of some names for her. we all thought something chrstmassy was in order but it was hard to come up with girl christmas kitty names. since my dad is a little weird sometimes he came up with myrrh. hunh?! we all liked it b/c she is a big purrer and kind of has a soft murrish meow. but i think we will be forever explaining how to spell her name and where it came from. since she was a christmas present and the three wisemen brought frankincense, gold, and myrrh.... we thought myrrh was quite fitting. and yes, we had to look it up in a dictionary to figure out how to properly spell it. so myrrh it is and she has become a fantastic member of the harper household as she is super sweet, very pretty, very playful and cuddly!
myrrh relaxing by the fireplace in her new home
myrrh climbs the cat tree my mom put in the lakehouse...neither of the other two cats will climb it, but myrrh has fun!
2 comments:
i think i remember you mentioning to me this kitty before - what a great ending! I'm so glad you adopted her; i love the name! so original, i could only think of something like Noel, kinda obvious... Myrrh is great. and she's beautiful.
love the name!!
can't comment on how cute she is because to me she looks like a cat ;)
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