The Cat's Meow!

summer days. 

watching video games

 At one time in our lives we all experience the joy of having an animal relationship. Whether it be as a kid growing up, or moving out on your own. It comes along in some point in our lives, maybe through friends or family. But maybe you're allergic to the furry friends and have more scaly friends instead like a fish or a lizard.
 Well this guy here is part of the reason I live. His name is Broscole, and the story of how we became best friends always makes me cry. It's amazing that at a time of sadness of any kind how a pet can bring such joy.  I've always heard that pet therapy can be helpful to those who are going through a depression, sickness, death, disappointment within yourself or someone else.
 Enough ramble let's move onto the story now!

 I believe I was about 10 or 11, I had a dog name Ginger. She was a pug, and she was my dog ! I had two younger siblings, they both had pets of their own. My brother ( the youngest ) had a cat named Smokey, and My sister ( who was the middle child ) had a dog name Jack , and when he left came along a rotty named Tyson.
 We always had pets through my childhood, whether it be a cat, a dog,a bird, or a tank full of fish and frogs. There was just always some kind of life other than humans in our house and I loved it.

 When we had moved from an apartment to a house with more then 3 anchors of land, so we had a big yard to run around and play in. Unfortunately, Ginger was starting to get older and more sick. She had cancer. I'm not sure what kind but that's what Dad always told me. I was heartbroken when my mom sat me down and explained that she was sick and that she had to be put to sleep so that she wouldn't suffer. But I knew what my mom was trying to say, I was just still so upset. I had her since I was about 5 years old that I can remember. She wasn't a puppy but she wasn't a full sized adult when I was 5 either.

 

first nice day @ the new house

stealing dinner !

Hot hot weather. 

  The day came for her to be put asleep. My
mom wouldn't let me go because I had school, so she took my Grandpa ( her dad ) which made me feel better that way my mom wouldn't be alone when it happened. I though that because we had this dog for so long that mom would cry just as much as me, but I was little and thought everyone in the world was sad she would die.
 That day when I got home from school,  my mom had kept her collar and she gave it to me to keep. I took it to school everyday. Eventually from move to move I lost the collar, but I found that my mom had a lot of pictures of her. I still have them.

 Like I said, we had always had a house full of pets, even fish. It was a weekly thing that on weekends that the whole family went grocery shopping and to the pet store to get fish and fish food.

 I loved going to the pet store as a kid. Always looking at all the different kinds of fish and bunnies and animals they had. 

First time out of hiding in the new house!

 At one point they had a cat in a cage up for adoption. He was so beautiful, different from any other normal house cat I seen. They were always orange, black, or white. Simple colours nothing funky like this cat.
 For weeks we had gone to our local pet store and this cat was always there. The one girl who worked there always let me pet him. She told me I must have a magic touch because this cat doesn't like when other people beside the people who work there pet him. Now whether or she was only saying it to get him sold I'll never know. But I believe I truly did have a magic touch with this cat. The way he purred when I pet him, and how excited he got when I came around. He was just perfect.
 I had never asked my dad if I could have him, I just went right for him and pet him while everyone else went to look at the fish and such. Our last visit was the best. My dad was at the check out and I was sitting beside the check out petting him through the cage. As she asked my dad " Is that all for today?" he replied " yea, box up that cat too ". My dad always said that there was a sign that pretty much said  " adopted me or they'll put me to sleep ". The sign obviously didn't say it but that's how my dad read it. haha.

toys & cat nip! what more could I ask for?

. I was so excited to bring him home. Although he was literally boxed up to bring home. I just couldn't wait to let him run around the house. 
 When we got home that day, he managed to get out of the house, and with so much land we figured he would come back. I waited two days for him to come home. Surprisingly, I wasn't sad nor did I think that he had run away. Once he finally did come home there was this big black bird on our front porch. He got out a few times and always brought back something dead. Mom always told me it was his way of showing me that he accept me and was happy he had a home.
  Maybe I should get to his name. When we adopted him he already had a name. Broscole! It was different I liked it. I loved him so much.
 He helped me get over losing my first pet. Not that he replaced her, but he kept me just as happy as my dog did.
 Broscole was so full of life and energy. He quickly became my best friend. Even with there being 4 other people in the house, Broscole  always came to me at bed time and cuddled with me. 

 We had lived at the house we brought him to  for a few years after that and eventually moved into a complex with a golf course across the street. I was worried that with it being a busy road in front of us and people in the golf course and then the people who lived around us. I didn't know if they would take my cat or call animal control being as he was mostly an outdoor cat.
There was a time where some jerk who lived two or three doors down had picked up my cat by his neck, rang my door bell and told me to keep him inside because he pissed all over his door. Little did this a-hole know was that my cat was neutered and he never pissed on things other than the grass. Being only about 13 -14 I didn't know what to say to this guy so I got my mom to come down. I don't really remember what happened, but needless to say he never touched my cat again! 
 I loved going to bed having this cat. If he wasn't outside he was laying at my feet or most of the time laying on the body pillow above my head and cuddled into my head. Even now living on my own and having another person in his bed, he claims that pillow and often cuddles my face or into my chest!
 When living with my parents and experienced the life of parties, and jobs, and boyfriends and heart breaks, going through my depression and really deep areas of my life, it was wonderful having my cat to come home too and lay in bed with. Eventually I started to date boys. Not boy after boy. I've only had 4 serious actually boyfriends, and once of which I'm happily engaged too!  I started to stay out longer, even for a few days, my cat started to notice my wacky late night crazy life. Anytime I wasn't home my cat would meow and annoy everyone. At one point while living at my parent's we had got another dog ( the rotty was long gone by this time ). This dog was cool but rotten at the same time. he ate everything. We had to start shutting bedroom doors. Broscole was not pleased! And with me never being home, he started to annoy my family because all he did was meow for me to be home.
I started being home more because of some personal issues. Broscole loved it, and he liked when my fiance came over because he got double the attention. Once me and my fiance decided that we were going to move, it was obvious that he was coming with us. 

"what is this place mom? It's nothing like where I grew up"

March 1st we moved our new family into our own home! It was funny moving him. We had lived at my parents house for so long that he was scared to move. To be honest, I was too but we knew it was for the best to help us in our relationship and think about our own family one day.
 It was funny watching Broscole explore the new house. For a few weeks he hid in whatever he could, not sure what to think about this new place. He wouldn't even come out to sit with me. Eventually he started to come around little by little. For the first little while he just stayed at my side on the couch, but as soon as I got up, or there was a knock at the door he was right back into his hiding spot.


 Once he started to get more venturous he followed me where ever I went around the house. At previous houses he was an out door cat, but being at our new house, we live on the top floor , there's a lot of stairs,  and I don't really trust the area. I put a gate across our deck though because we have a nice deck that soaks up a lot of the dun being on the top floor. Although he is still curious about what is below, he enjoys being at the top because of all the birds and animals the come on to our porch.

Broscole is getting older now and I should probably mention that when he was adopted he wasn't a kitten. It is clear that he has arthritis in his front left paw and perhaps the start of cancer with bumps on his back, he fur is all clumpy and very hard to brush ( he's a long hair cat ), and he as almost no teeth except for his 3 front fangs and some little teeth. He can only eat soft food now with little handfuls of soft/hard cat treats here throughout the day. But aside from all that it's amazing to see he's still so full of life and energy  and that none of his pain shows as much as you would think. He's as happy as can be.

Now that he is use to the house and it just being me and my fiance, he spends his days sleeping, sun bathing on the porch, eating, playing normal cat things. We also share the same love for napping on the couch during the day when we can, or laying on my lap while reading my books, or maybe writing on the computer.

  

 I know that animals or people do not live forever, but I feel like my cat will, even though in the back of my mind I know his time is coming. It's just hard to think that the one thing that has brought me through so much may not be there. Some people don't understand why people get so upset about a pet dying you can just replace it they think. But they have not felt the true love of a life other than a human.
 This cat will always be something special to me. I've had him since I was 10, I'm now almost 21 and he wasn't a kitten when we got him.

 Moving away from my parents was hard because I love my family, but being able to bring my cat with me, makes me happy because he was just as much family as everyone else.
I'm getting teary while writing this.

I'm off to find my cat and get my house clean. I hope you all enjoyed this post. Share your story about you pet with me ! I would love to read them.

Take Care all !

" I'll just sleep until dinner is done! Then maybe explore this new place we call home "