Trivia and Snoopy: A love story

Posted on November 15, 2014 by luckyotter

WARNING: If you are easily upset by sad animal stories, you may want to skip reading this post.

In 1968, when I was eight, we acquired a cat. My parents weren’t cat lovers, but my two parakeets (Maurice and Herr Vogel) had recently died (their cage sat on top of a heat register and the cage had overheated) and I was paralyzed with grief. My father (recently identified by me as a low-level narcissist and enabler), in one of his infrequent moments of compassion, decided to bring home a kitten to cheer me up.

My dad named her Trivia, because she was so small. Trivia was a brown and black female tabby, with huge, beautiful green eyes. I fell in love with her and soon recovered from my grief over my lost birds.

Trivia grew up to be friendly and playful, and always slept curled up next to me at night. Unfortunately, I have no photos of her anymore (since my MN-mother told me she threw away all the family photos because I asked for them), but here is a photo of another cat that looks a lot like Trivia:

At first Trivia was an indoor cat, but when she was about a year old, she started sneaking outside and there was no keeping her confined to the house once she got a whiff of the great outdoors. At first I was worried she might not come back or something might happen to her, but my fears were unfounded. Trivia always came home before it got dark or when she got hungry. She was never very far, and even came when you called her name.

Next door was a large gray tabby tomcat named Snoopy. He was about three times Trivia’s size and looked intimidating, but soon they became close friends. The cats would snooze together on the neighbor’s porch, and sometimes you could find the two of them on top of my father’s big yellow Pontiac, grooming each other or just sleeping. Every morning, Snoopy actually came to the back screen door and meowed loudly and pitifully until we let Trivia out. I really think he was in love with her. He was certainly an attentive and devoted lover, and very handsome to boot.

One beautiful summer evening Trivia didn’t come home. We called and called her, but she wouldn’t come. This just was so unlike her. My father and I looked all over the backyard, and then the neighborhood. Some of the neighborhood kids even joined the search, but Trivia was nowhere to be found.

She never came home that night, or the next. Snoopy was nowhere to be found either.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny. My mother found Snoopy meowing at the backdoor again, and thought he was calling for Trivia to come out. She shooed him away, but Snoopy stood steadfast. She called me downstairs to take Snoopy back to his house. When Snoopy saw me, he mewed sadly and I knew something was wrong. He turned and walked slowly back to his house next door. Something told me I should follow him.

There was an overgrown hedge of boxwoods that ran along the far side of the neighbor’s home. That’s where Snoopy went, and I followed him there. I was overtaken with a feeling of impending doom. Snoopy stopped in front of the most overgrown thicket of hedge, and looked up at me. I looked down into the patch of weeds on the ground, and saw a patch of brown tabby fur. It was Snoopy’s best friend, Trivia.

I leaned down to get a closer look, then leapt up and ran home sobbing. We came back with a blanket and wrapped her up in it, and drove her to the animal hospital. The examination found that she had been fatally hit by a car but hadn’t died immediately. She suffered massive internal bleeding but somehow managed to make her way to the hedges next to Snoopy’s house to die there. I realized that the reason we hadn’t seen Snoopy for almost two days was because he had been with Trivia, keeping vigil over her in the hedges.

Snoopy was never the same after that. In fact, we never saw him much anymore, and when we did, he didn’t look the same. He lost weight and a year later died of natural causes. I truly believe animals can feel love the way humans can, and poor Snoopy died of a broken heart.

Meet my pets

Posted on November 9, 2014 by luckyotter

I meant to post earlier about my pets, but I had to make some space on my phone to take new photos. This morning I finally got the opportunity. I have 5 kitties and a dog, Dexter. Each of them has their own unique personality and hopefully these photos capture some of that. I’m posting the cats in the order I acquired each one.

Chunks:

Chunks is about 9 or 10, so she is the oldest of the group. Her original name was Ione, but it didn’t stick and Chunks is who she became, and from these photos you can see why. She looks like a meatloaf! Chunks spends most of her time sleeping, and (surprise!) eating. At night she likes to sleep at the foot of my bed and sometimes licks my fingers. I think she must be part Siamese because of her bright blue eyes and and loud meow.

Babycat:

Babycat is 5. She was adopted by my daughter as a tiny kitten whose mother had been killed by a car. You can’t tell from these photos, but Babycat used to look like a Maine Coon and had gorgeous semi-long fur and a bushy tail. But she is very nervous and jumpy, and has a habit of chewing her fur until she pulls it out. I think she also may have a skin allergy because she is also missing fur in places she can’t reach, like the back of her neck. When I have the funds I plan to take her to the vet and find out what can be done so she grows back her beautiful fur. But Babycat is also very friendly and affectionate, as long as you don’t pick her up (she will squirm to get loose). She gets along well with Chunks, but seems to prefer to keep her distance from the other kitties.

Sheldon:

Sheldon, my black and white tuxedo cat, came to my home at the same time as Cleo, but they aren’t from the same litter. He and Cleo are about 4. Of all the cats, Sheldon is the most people oriented and can be downright doglike in his demands for attention! He will follow you around meowing and he announces himself when he walks into a room, chirping and trilling like a bird. He loves my dog, Dexter the most and wrestles with him more like a puppy than a cat. Sheldon’s also the most likely to get into trouble, knocking things over (for attention I think!) or scratching the furniture. He’s a funloving guy who loves to go out, and will not leave you alone until he gets his way. The first two photos show him begging to go outside. It was very hard to get him to stay still long enough to get a good photo!

Cleo:

Cleo is an easygoing kitty and very small. She still looks like a kitten. But don’t let her delicate appearance fool you. She is a world class hunter and often brings home a “surprise.” She has even captured rabbits and other animals much bigger than a mouse! She can run up a tree faster than you can say “Boo” and knows how to get herself back down too. She gets along well with everyone and while not as affectionate as Babycat and Sheldon, doesn’t mind being pet and occasionally even carried around. Sometimes she jumps down from a perch on the cat tree and rides around on my shoulders. The first photo is one I took of her during the summer.

Mr. Biggles:

Mr. Biggles is about 3. He is a handsome guy and as you can see, he’s the most photogenic of all the kitties. He knows how pretty he is because he’ll actually stop and stay still for the camera. He’s an easygoing, chill guy who gets along well with everyone but he’s terribly clumsy, and often misses when he tries to jump to a high surface. Nothing phases him though, and pretty soon he’ll try again. He’s fearless. He also loves his beauty rest.

Dexter:

Dexter with Mr. Biggles:

Dexter is a very pretty black lab/Dachsund mix (he mom was a Doxie) who we adopted from a neighbor when he was about 4 or 5 months old. He’s a very sweet, affectionate boy and loves car rides more than anything. He likes all the cats, especially Mr. Biggles and Sheldon. He will whine for attention and loves to run. He’s a terrible watchdog though, and rarely barks unless he is playing.

Here’s a couple of bonus photos I took of the cats on the cat tree in the living room, after I sprinked some catnip on it. The brown and white cat in the bottom left side of the photo is Isaiah, a friend’s cat we are watching while he is away.