Just want this event recorded in my diary.....
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for all your repsonses, support and sympathy. This has been really hard on me, I must admit. I miss my girl so so much. She was incredibly special, and meant so much to me, for so many different reasons - I just feel like a small piece of me is missing.
I will tell you a few things about Vince. It may be long, and I hope it doesn't bore. But sometimes, uniquely special animals come into our lives, and she was one of those.
I had just managed, after 1.5 years of staging my "get-a-way" from my bi-polar boyfriend, it was Christmas time, and I had just picked up the keys to my new house. MY house. Alone, at last. Not feeling entirely safe, from the ex, but alone at last. It was a small victorian house, large rooms, hardwood floor, a fire place, and what we call "fibber magee" closets - lots of little closets and nooks and crannys all around. Was wonderful. Tall cielings, a covered porch with vines and hydrangea surronding it, blocked from the road by a tall hedge. It was heaven.
It was also empty, as it was another 2 weeks before I was actually moving my furniture in. But every night after work, I drove up the mountain to my little town, and sat on the floor of my empty house, with my 12-inch tall torquoise-tinsel tree with little blue fairie lites and made a small fire, and listened to the soundtrack from "Don Juan DeMarco" thinking that every man should be made to listen to, hear, and understand "When You Love A Women" cause none of the ones I'd met did!!!!
It was a sad time.
And one day, sat there alone, near christmas, missing my family and my life - in strolled Vince. She pushed the door open and waltzed right in, straight up to me, looked up and mewwed and did her little chirp, and sat down beside me.
It turned out she used to live in that house, as I found out 3 weeks later when an angry women banged on my door and said "Thats my cat on your porch! You have MY cat!!" I told her I relieved someone found her as I did not know who she belonged to, but that she stops in there every evening for about an hour or two. I never fed her - I believed she belonged to someone, Ijust enjoyed her company. So, the women took her, after i advised her if she ever was missing, she could count on finding her there.
A month or so passed, and one day, after I was settled in, guess who came back??
I expected her owners anytime now. Then anyday now. Then realised, they were not coming back for her. So, I welcomed her with open arms, and from that day on she was my cat. She came along when I really needed her, so I knew she was special.
Then - when I was getting ready to move over here, a year or two later, I had a yard sale. My hubby was outside dealing with stuff when the owner pulled up and said she noticed I was moving. He said, "Yah. And?" Well, she wondered what was going to happen with "Penelope"? OH told her "Vincent" was going to get an English Accent, as she was moving across the pond.... The woman started to kick up, and he continued his sentence, .....with Jan, because she is JAN's cat.
Well, before she left she told him a little story about Vince.
Vince had had a litter of four kittens in that house. She made the sad mistake of moving the little kittens behind the refrigerator, and when her people got home, and discovered this, one of the kittens had died. Vincent was distraught, and got very depressed. Bless her - she is , was
, such a loving cat. Anyway, one evening, she went outside. Out in the backyard, there was a little pear orchard. There were some fallen pears on the ground. Vince carried one up, for each of the kittens, and then placed a fourth in the bed, on it's own - for the little lost one. So, that tells you about Vince, and her amazing heart.
And one other interesting little bit of interest, in our minds, Vincent had the longest whiskers in the world. Really!
We were always commenting on her beautiful whiskers - they were soooo long and graceful. Anyway, one night we were watching TV, and something was on about the Guinnes Book of World Records - and they were measuring a cat - the new winner of the claim. So we got out a tape measurer, and measured Vince's and they were a clear 1/2 inch longer! She lost one one day, probably in a kerfuffle with Monet, my siamese. That was a few years ago. We still have that whisker, in exactly the same place we put it that night - righton the mantle/hearth. And everytime I dust, I carefully move it, dust, and put it back.
The hardest thing I am coping with now, is that Vincent died, frightened, and in pain - with me in the room, but not coming to her rescue - not even able to touch her. That just breaks my heart. She died scared. It is not supposed to be like that, and it really hurts.
I am really angry, it was all done so FAST, after we had such a long slow wait - they just gave us no time to prepare, or stroke or say goodbye properly. It was just - - over. In a blink. Almost a panic. I don;t understand why it had to be that way. I never will.
So - I am feeling better in some ways, as I settle into life without her. Butin other ways, it gets harder.
WOW. I guess I needed to "talk". If anyone made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read.
Whoever says, "They are just pets", simply do not understand pets. She was family.
Cheers guys...
xxxxx