One of the hardest things about dorming is being away from my cats. It’s hard to fall asleep without a purring fluffball in my bed.
In one way, though, I got lucky.
Between my dorm and the university- along the way, in fact- there is a small pet supply store. I wandered in, freshman year, and was delighted to find that they had a pet cat in residence.
They currently have two kittehs- Bailey and Figaro. Baily is a buff orange tabby, about two years. He can be a bit aloof at times, but he’ll like you when the mood strikes him. Figaro is a little black and white cat. I guess she’s about a year old now, but she’s still really tiny. She’s very playful and likes to follow you around.
(When I first found them, they had an overweight black cat named Tabitha. A very sweet girl, even if she did have some hygiene issues. Tabitha died in the springtime, and when I came back the next year they had Bailey).
I don’t know how I’d deal if I didn’t have my emergency back-up kitties.
I have pictures of them on my cellphone camera. However, I have no idea how to download them or upload them or whatever. To tell you the truth, I have no idea how to use most of the functions on my cell.
I know ALL about emergency back-up kitties. I lost my precious Blue earlier this year and had to stop by PetsMart & PetCo for kitty fixes. My husband and I would go for walks through our neighborhood & I’d seek out neighbor kitties. He’d calculate my kitty sighting-to-petting ratio, which was always dismal.
In the neighborhood we have Smelly Cat, Teriyaki, Princess, Galaxy, and Cartman. We used to have Mom Cat but she must have passed away. I don’t see Babe or Antony much anymore, either. One can never get enough kitty fix!
Oh, and one of those visits to PetsMart resulted in the adoption of Niagara last Saturday! Yaay!
I do emergency kitty fixes when I am on the road for more than a couple of days - I go to the local shelter and ask if any of their kitties need socialization. Ah, the calming influence of a purring cat!
I have emergency back-up pups at my aunt’s grooming shop. When I need a doggie fix (including from my two doggie cousins, her dogs) I head over there. My favorite dog in the universe lives with my parents 2500 miles away and I miss him, though he’s in excellent hands. I have a whole slew of doggie friends here, though it’s not quite the same.
And when I visited my parents, their kitty provided me with the kitty fix I needed; I missed my opinionated Siamese girl. Their opinionated tortie fit the bill just right. Cats are so much fun when they have attitude!
When I traveled to Colorado a few weeks ago, I chose to visit a winery that had resident cats over other wineries (I scoped them out online before I left). I’m not much of a wine person so I had no other criteria to go by and figured by mid-trip I’d need some type of feline contact.
I wasn’t disappointed. Thanks to Carlson Vineyards near Grand Junction, and Twiggy the cat. I got my fix!