We’ve had this black cat for about 15 years now. When MilliCal was still very little, just getting over the death due to cancer of our black cat Maggie*, she insisted that we had to go to the Cat Shelter “to get Lotta”
She hadn’t seen any of the cats there, so “Lotta” was just a name, attached, I guess, to an idealized cat. We went, an d looked through the roomful of felines until MilliCal found Lotta. Lotta turned out to be a six month old black cat (like Maggie) that already bore the name “Girl Teeny” Her mother was there, too. We briefly considered getting the mother, but decided that two hefty queens like her and our cat Midnight would probably tear each other up. We took Girl Teeny home and rechristened her. One of MilliCal’s subsequent stuffed toy cats got named “Girl Teeny”.
Midnight easily accepted Lotta into the household. I get the feeling she thought of her as The New Maggie – looks the same, but not as bossy. Midnight would now be Top Cat.
Lotta was always quiet and shy, flitting rapidly from place to place. The only time she asserted herself was when Pepper Mill tried to adopt another boy cat, Jake, and Lotta followed him around, keeping a suspicious eye on him. Jake didn’t fit in with our group, so Lotta’s suspicions were correct. When the other cats came in – one-eyed Clarence, then later Hestia, she had no problems with them. There were some issues with Hermes, but everyone had issues with Hermes.
I still thought of her as The Young One, Little Lotta, even though after the passing of our two Maine Coon cats, Midnight and Clarence, she succeeded as Oldest Cat. But she was getting older, and getting around was a little harder. Nevertheless, she climbed up my den chair to get to the window and lie on the cabinet, looking out. Or climbing atop the old sewing machine to look out the bedroom window.
But no more. She’s been sick, and the vet diagnosed it as kidney failure. She was still game until very recently. Now she no longer climbs to her former favorite haunts. She demands food, but only eats a mouthful or so, then vomits later. She pees outside the litter boxes, even though we moved one into her den. Now she does very little, and has retreated to the basement loveseat most of the day. She doesn’t respond very well to petting, and th other day she peed three times on the floor.
