Princess

Just before we were to move from our old house to the new one in Gahanna, a beautiful long-haired white cat with a black spot on her back showed up in our yard. She started showing up every day. She didn't have a face that looked puffy like a Persian, she had a beautiful, sculptured face like that of a Turkish Angora. She was a dainty little lady, but she looked pregnant. We were just about to move and couldn't take in another cat at that time, especially a pregnant one. My mom found an office acquaintance who lived on an acreage who offered to take in Princess. Mom took Princess to her and not long after that, the lady told mom that Princess had kittens. I think she had three kittens and one of them looked just like her. The lady would occasionally give mom pictures of Princess and her kittens and she looked happy out there in the woods with her kittens.

Some time after we had moved to Gahanna and gotten settled in, my mom asked this lady about Princess. The lady told her she no longer had Princess, but I don't know why. This lady did keep the kittens. Mom found out that Princess was at the animal shelter and she went there straightaway to rescue her. When she got there, Princess was in the 'Biting Room.' She had apparently bitten someone. Princess was a sweet cat, she never once tried to bite any of us, she never hissed at us and never scratched us. She was always a lovely little lady, so this was a total mystery to us. I think somebody else had attempted to adopt her and it didn't work out so they returned her and I think maybe they were mean to her. That was upsetting, she was such a sweet cat. When mom got her, Princess was also missing a tooth. If my mom hadn't have come and gotten her, Princess would have been put to sleep.  My mom brought Princess home. We took her to the vet and got her checked out, that's when we found out that Princess was missing a tooth. We got her spayed, we didn't need  to deal with kittens or a cat in heat.

Then came the process of introducing her to the other two cats. Actually, from what I remember, it went fairly smoothly. Because she was a female, I guess the male cats didn't feel that threatened. Princess quickly became one of the family and she took a real liking to my mom. She was a sweet cat and never tried to bite anyone, not even the other cats. The only thing with her was her massive long hair. It got matted easily and often. We had to brush her frequently and she hated being brushed with a passion. She would fight it by squirming and then she would get lots of gas and I would have to stop brushing her. If she saw me with the brush, she would run and hide. I would try to reward her with treats after brushing her to try to make it a better experience, but it didn't work, she hated to be brushed. I tried to be really gentle and would have to cut the mats out. I did everything I could not to pull her hair.

Princess loved to watch birds. She was fascinated by them. She would watch them from a window or from the patio door for hours. She had probably caught them when she was on her own. She would love to play and pretend she was stalking a bird. She also loved feathers. If you waved a string around, she would go after it. She was quite playful. She still remembered her kittens. One day, the TV was on and a show with a litter of kittens was on. She heard the mewing on the TV and immediately looked behind the TV for her kittens. I felt bad that she missed her kittens and I could not bring them to her. She was a good mother.

We had Princess for only  2 or 3 years. One day, three days before Christmas, we found her dead in the basement. We had no idea she had been sick. She had been healthy, eating normally and looking just fine. We had gone out for breakfast that morning, then went shopping after that. We bought a Christmas ornament that with a battery in it, chirped like a bird (you could turn it on and off so it wouldn't drive you crazy). Princess loved birds and I remember that I couldn't wait to show it to her when we got home. We couldn't find her until I found her in the basement. It was completely heartbreaking.

We had a necropsy done on her (for humans, it's called an autopsy, for animals, it's called a necropsy). She had died of a disease called Hemolytic anemia. One of her kittens died of the same disease. It is the breakdown of red blood cells. Animals sometimes don't show that they're sick until it's near the end. It's how they survive in the wild without looking vulnerable. She was a very special, beautiful cat and we will always remember her.