We'll miss you Jen...Here's Bella

We've owned and loved our beautiful white and gold cat, Jen, for 13 years. When we first got her, she was an inside cat. In fact, she never stepped outside until she was over a year old. However, after a week vacation away, when we returned she and her sister cat had decided to show their anger at our leaving them alone by peeing all over the house. From that day forward, Jen became an outside cat. Jen was a very verbal cat. She sat outside our bedroom window and angrily meowed non-stop throughout the first night. She was pissed off and wanted back in. But my resolve was greater and eventually she adapted to being an outside cat. In fact I think she thrived outside. She was a cat that behaved more like a dog. She came when you called to her. She would perch on the half wall that is just outside our kitchen nook window and meow her good morning. Cici our dog would run over and put her paws up on the window sill and Cici and Jen would go nose to nose through the screen. They loved each other. I would have a short morning conversation with Jen. I'd say something and she'd meow in reply. I'm not exaggerating. My mom was here over Christmas for several weeks and she was witness to these "conversations." Jen would sleep every night in our garage. She had two favorite spots. One on an old beanbag and the other an old laundry basket with an old blanket in it. We also called her the "Kamakaze Cat" as she liked to play this game of timing it just right when I drove up the driveway in my car, as I raised the garage door to pull in, Jen would make a run for it crossing right in front of my car, narrowly being run over by me. I must say she had impeccable timing.

When all the evacuees came to stay, they brought with them their various cats and dogs. In all the chaos I neglected to think of how Jen would react to the invasion of the various pets. Apparently she didn't react well. She took off and we haven't seen her since. We've looked everywhere. About a week ago, Dan spent 3 hours on his mini-trail scouring the area for her. There were no signs of her. We visited the pound to see if she had been picked up. She hadn't. We have a pack of coyotes that live close to us and we can only assume that she wandered into their territory and was killed. It's weird how at the most unexpected times, thoughts of her some into my mind and I fill with this sadness. The worst is when I close the garage doors at night. I always checked to see if she was in the garage, if not I'd call to her. I still look up at the kitchen nook window in the morning wishing to hear her morning greeting. I guess it will take a while to get over the loss of her. She was a good cat and we'll miss her. Unfortunately I don't have a digital picture of her to share, but take my word for it, she was a pretty girl.

Last Sunday, Chelsea convinced Dan and I to go to the pound to see if we could adopt another cat. She already had the name picked out...Bellatrix. I call her Bella, Cody calls her Trix, and Chelsea calls her Bellatrix. As usual, Dan calls her KeeKee, as he does all of our pets, including the dog. Chelsea really took her time holding all the possible adoptees and settled on our new pretty little kitty, Bella.
She's been living most of the time with Chelsea in her room. We've been gradually introducing her to Cici. The first meeting did not go well, but Dan was there for the second meeting, and helped Bella calm down considerably. I'm convinced he's some sort of "Cat Whisperer." This picture was taken yesterday and you can see Cici's face and nose in the upper right hand corner and you can clearly see that Bella doesn't seem too bothered. We're still exposing them to each other in small doses. We're going to wait until she's a bit bigger before we allow her free reign of the house.