"ladyjade" wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...

"Unca Cory" wrote in message
t...
Tootie, House of Ekern - circa 1984 to Feb 10, 2003

I was somewhat of a young 'un when Tootie came into my family's life
(I'm
in my early 30's... you do the math). She was my family's first cat.
We'd gotten a d*g, named Alfalfa, in 1979, and I really, really liked
d*gs at that time in my life. However, having Tootie around was a
positive experience for me, to say the least.

My mom had gone out to walk the d*g one morning at the park right down
the hill from our house. It was a rainy day... damp, cloudy... you get
the picture. In the park there's a culvert. Being the quirky d*g that
he was, Alfalfa loved to go check out that culvert on his daily walk in
the park and see what kind of stuff he could find there. That's where
my
mother found Tootie... wet, cold, hungry. She was just a wee bit of a
thing. Mom and TED thought she was about six weeks old or so, and had
been dumped in the culvert by someone attempting to, more or less, kill
her (we thought that she was part of an unwanted litter). My brother
was
going through a "CATS" phase in his life, and wanted to name this kitten
Mistopheles sp?. Mistopheles it was. Somehow, my dad started calling
her Tootie after my brother and I left home, and the name stuck

As I said, I liked d*gs more than cats at that time in my life. Cats
were too independent for my tastes. Tootie hung out with you on her own
terms, whether you wanted her to hang out with you at that given moment
or not (and was a bit of a pain in the ass in that respect, also), and
really, as time went on, latched on to my father more than anyone else
in
the house.

I didn't really bond with Tootie in the same way that I bonded with
Onyx.
However, I was not prepared for the reaction I had when she went to the
Bridge in February. I regretted not spending more time with her, and I
missed her... still do, AAMOF. Tootie was a good cat. She was an
assertive cat... never afraid to put Alfalfa the d*g, or a much younger
Onyx (who was born in 1994), or her sisfur Holly, born a year after
Onyx, in their place... and she was a loyal cat.

Tootie was traveling with my folks in the RV-monster when she fell ill
for the last time. My folks were beside themselves, because the worst
of
her malady, whatever it was, came in the middle of the night, when no
TED's offices were open, and my folks couldn't find a 24 hour animal
hospital, either. When morning came, they made a beeline for a TED's
office, and didn't hesitate whatsoever in deciding to put an end to
Tootie's discomfort. She was cremated, and the ashes were to be shipped
back to my folks' house up north. Because of some miscommunications or
something, my folks ended up going *back* to TED's office, some 100
miles
or so out of their way, to retrieve Tootie's ashes. She was that much a
part of our lives.

Goodbye, sweet girl. You may have done things your way and on your
terms, but in an ironic twist, that's probably what I'll remember best,
and most fondly, about you.

--- Cory, about to get a bad case of MMS...

--
"Mine hedd a tennizball izz NOT!" --- Mr. GrowlTiger

My e-mail address does not have my first name in it

Dat waz luvlee Unca Cory sniff

DaRennieKidz


Fangu furr shayren yur hart wiff us unka cory
Dyna, attempting tu groom Unka Cory's hayer