Chloe

FIRST KITTY BLUE CALICO: CHLOE

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

Thursday again and time to join Angel Sammy and Teddy for their poetry day. This week’s prompt letter is “C.” Each week the boys also are providing four prompt words from which to select as the theme for our poem. Being rebels, we’ve dismissed using any of the words. After taking a vote, we decided to write about one of the previous Kitties Blue, Chloe. Chloe was a member of the family from 1992 through 2003.

The Original Calico
Chloe

 

Chloe was our sisfur and a calico.
She lived here many years ago.
She showed up in the driveway one day
And decided she wanted to stay.
Our humans had only five cats at the time,
So told her that would be just fine.
They had no idea she was in heat,
Then she began howling for a male to meet.
Off to the vet she went in a flash.
Her hopes of more babies quickly dashed.
Our vet said she’d been a mom at least once.
Where or when we didn’t have a hunch.
Chloe, for eleven years was a Kitties Blue
But died mysteriously, not leaving a clue.
Our humans were away when it happened.
The pet sitter found her; discovered she wasn’t napping.
Lily Olivia is the only one who knew this other calico,
But we’ve seen her photos. She was adorable.
We hope you enjoyed meeting Chloe, our angel sisfur.
We know for a fact our humans still miss her.

© Kitties Blue 06/28/17

Here are a few of our mom’s favorite photos of Chloe.

 

Calico Chloe

Calico Chloe

 

We hope you enjoyed meeting Chloe.

To find links to other poems and to read Teddy and Angel Sammy’s poem, click on their badge.

Thankful Thursday

We also participate in Brian’s Thankful Thursday blog hop each week. This is the final week of National Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, and we current Kitties Blue are thankful that our humans have continued to adopt cats. As Brian always says, “Adopt cats. We deserve it.” To join the Thankful Thursday blog hop, click on Brian’s badge.

Thanks for joining us again today.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo and Cooper Murphy

p.s. Most of you who joined us yesterday guessed the cat butts correctly: Cooper Murphy (duh), Mauricio and Lisbeth (and Calista Jo’s head).

FRIENDLY FILL-INS EVOKE MEMORIES

Week #17

FriendlyFillIns

 

Once again, I am participating in Annie’s (McGuffy’s Reader) and Ellen’s (15 And Meowing) Friendly Fill-ins. This is a blog hop, and you can add your link on Annie’s blog. My fill-ins are in teal italics.

1. My favorite way to exercise is cycling or swimming.

2. Something I learned last week was about a cool web-site for lovers of all things cat: iheartcats.comSo what makes this site different from others, you ask? For every item purchased a certain number of daily meals are provided to shelters across the U.S. through a partnership with Rescue Bank®. As stated on the  iheartcats website: “Rescue Bank® supports freight-paid deliveries to smaller, less visible non-profits that have limited access to resources. They operate on the national food bank model, accepting food donations from many manufacturers, distributors or retailers.”

But this is not just a shopping site. They also offer health and training advice, DIY projects and inspirational stories.

3. I am sentimental about the kitties I have loved and lost. I think about all of them often and remember their quirks and foibles. Thelma was the first cat on my head, and she would chew on my hair. The hair on the crown of my head ended up being about two inches long.

Thelma loved the water left over after I steamed broccoli.

Madison was a fanatic for the juice from green olives from the deli.

Chloe would always put a front paw on whatever plate or dish from which she was eating to keep it from escaping. And she was a member of the clean plate club!

 

Memories of Chloe

Chloe

 

Madison and MacKenzie joined our household at just about the same time, and they were the best of friends. I loved watching them together. You can read an entire post about them here.

 

memories of Mac and Madison

Mac (top), Madison (bottom)

 

These are just a few of the memories that always make me smile and miss these angels all the more.

4. Some people may find it surprising to know that I was a dog person until we adopted our first cat, Skooter, in the mid-eighties. I adopted a cock-a-poo puppy (Smack) when I was a sophomore in college, and Tom and I adopted what was supposed to be a cock-a-poo puppy (Poppy) shortly before we were married. They both lived into their late teens. (Sorry I have no photos on this computer to share with you. I will scan some and share in another post.)

We will see you right back here tomorrow for Caturday Art.

RAINBOW BRIDGE REMEMBRANCE DAY WITH OUR ANGELS

RainbowBridge-Web

 

Zee & Zoey’s Cat Chronicles have created a very special day, Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day, to honor and remember “those cherished pets we have lost but not forgotten.”

Whether your beloved pet had fur or fins, scales or feathers, they had a special place in your heart of hearts.

Today we are honoring and remembering the nine angel kitties in our family as well as our honorary kitty angel, Nylablue.

 

Angel Skooter

Skooter

Angel Steamer

Steamer

 

Angel Daphne

Daphne

Angel Thelma

Thelma

 

Angel Louise

Louise

Angel Chloe

Chloe

 

Angel Twinkle

Twinkle

Angel Madison

Madison

 

Angel MacKenzie

MacKenzie

Honorary Sisfur Angel Nylablue

Nylablue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To learn more about them, you can visit our The Felines page.

We’d also like to remember and honor the two woofies who came before any of us, Smack and Poppy.

Please consider taking part in this first annual event. The hope is it will be the first of many to come. You are encouraged to post on your blog, your Facebook page, or any other social media of your choice in memory of your angel anipals.

This event is hosted by Purr Prints of the Heart. Although this was a day originally created in honor of  Zee and Zoey’s Mr. Jazz, it will now honor all those who have crossed their Rainbow Bridge.

Today, we are sending purrs and prayers to all the families and friends with angels who have crossed that Bridge.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

FRIDAY FLASHBACK INTRODUCES SOME OF OUR ANGELS

Just realized this hadn’t published when it was supposed to at midnight. Oops!

With our third blogoversary merely days away, I decided to participate in Flashback Friday and share one of our early posts with you. It received one comment from a personal friend, so I am relatively sure none of our current followers have seen it.

The post was originally published on September 1, 2012, and was entitled, “Naming Your Cat.” I have modified it slightly from a grammatical stand-point, but the content is unchanged. The post explains how several of our angels came by their names, so I believe you should find it interesting.

The asterisks in the post relate to a notes I have added at the end of today’s post.

NAMING YOUR CAT

Once you name a cat, it is no longer a stray. It is a member of your household. Friends have claimed they are feeding a cat that has been hanging around but haven’t named it. They just call it Cat or Kitty or some other generic moniker. Hey…that’s a name! My friend Tammy, who my Tom calls the pusher (she always calls me when she hears of cats that need homes) continues to have strays appear at her house. One of those, called Yellow Cat by her husband, Tom, was dropping by and they were feeding him. Tammy stated emphatically they were not claiming him or giving him a name. My Tom pointed out that Yellow Cat is a name. He’s now been around for a couple of years.

Poet T.S. Eliot (1888 – 1965) had advice about naming cats long before we started to care for cats, but we have our own list of “DOs” with regard to this: Number 1 on the list: Do give all your cats fancy names so when you’re outside screaming for them at the top of your lungs, your neighbors will think you’re classy. 

We haven’t used any of the imaginative and whimsical names, like Munkustrap, Bombalurina, or Jellylorum, Eliot suggested in “The Naming of Cats,” first published with other cat poems in 1939. To our minds, however, we have improved at this ritual as the years have progressed.

angelsNew to this important task with our first and second cats, our inexperience is evident. After days of debate with kitty #1, the best we could do was Skooter—a typical pet’s name or kid’s nickname. (He was not named after the Muppet, Scooter.) We made our guy’s name a little different by using a “K” instead of a “C” in the spelling. But, still, it was not unusual or imaginative. Scooter ranks very high on the list of popular cat names.

angelsOur second cat had an unusual name for a girl: Steamer. She was named after the brother of storyteller Ernest Randolph “Doc” McConnell (1928-2008): Cecil “Steamer” McConnell. We’d heard McConnell at a storytelling weekend at Mountain Lake, Pembroke, VA, and were delighted by a tale about Steamer and a Vienna (pronounced Vy-ee-nuh) Sausage tree. But this was yet another nickname.

angelsBy the time we got to our third cat, Daphne, we had decided human names were more sophisticated, developed our “DO” list and have not deviated from this system except when naming Twinkle. (However, I would like to have a Sparkle* someday, but probably will refrain as long as our neighbors have Sparky.) Daphne, according to Greek mythology, was a nymph pursued by the Olympian God, Apollo. Daphne prayed for help and was turned into a laurel. Though Daphne came into our lives in 1991, we did not know about the story of the laurel until 1994 when we visited Greece.

angelsUntil I began this post and re-read “The Naming of Cats” I hadn’t realized that we had used a derivative of one of Eliot’s “fancier” names. Chloë is another name for Demeter, the Greek Goddess of the Harvest. Chloë’s a very popular name on many pet naming web-sites as well. It’s the fifth most popular female cat name at cuteness.com and one of those listed at petrix.com along with Lily, Madison and MacKenzie. Dog lovers also must be partial to this name. The dog living across the street from us is a Chloë.

angels

We showed great restraint when it came to our cat Madison. He hung out on the back deck for more than six months before we invited him in the house. And he did not get his name until he had become a permanent member of the household! Madison is not an unusual name. Human girls have been acquiring this name at an increasing rate during the past several years. Our Madison, however, was a male, and his name fit him purrfectly. With his white fur and blue eyes most visitors thought he was a female. It really didn’t bother him as he was secure in his masculinity.

For information on how some of our other kids came by their names, please read THE FELINES page.

Involving your children in the selection of a new kitty or in the naming process is always a good idea. But be prepared to live with their selections. Our previous neighbors’ large, female, tuxedo cat was named Jim!

I have lists of potential cat names for future felines that might come into our lives. At the top of all lists are the names Audrey and Jeanmarie. These ladies are both previous veterinarians to our kitties. Audrey was instrumental in saving Lily’s life, which you will be able to read about in a future post.* Both vets came to the house for annual check-ups and vaccinations and also picked up and dropped off various kitties when they needed care that required an office visit. We think naming a couple of our pusses for them would be the supreme compliment.

If you truly are at a loss for a cat name and decide to Google “Cat Names,” you will find 73 pages of web-sites with various lists and suggestions for names. Numerous books also can be found with lists of names. But be adventurous and use your imagination. We have found that it takes about four months for the average cat (and, of course, none are) to learn its name, so we felt secure in renaming three of our kitties: MacKenzie originally known as Cyrus, Lisbeth formerly Cary and Astrid (Tabitha). Madison also most likely had another name. He was about two years old when he adopted us and so well-mannered that he must have been someone else’s pet at one time.

But no matter what you name your puss, as long as something good awaits (treats, stinky goodness), she’ll come when you call…eventually.

* This post was written prior to our meeting Sparkle or her blog.

* This post has never been written. I’m putting it on my To Do List.

 

CATURDAY ART WITH CHLOE

ChloeCATURDAYART

This is Chloe. She adopted us in 1992 and was with us for 11 years. She was in heat when she arrived at our door and already had a couple of previous litters according to our vet.

We’d never seen her in our neighborhood prior to that day and have no idea how she ended up in our yard. As we were heading out of town for the weekend when we discovered her, we had no choice but to leave her outside. Amazingly, she was waiting for us upon our return.  After having her spayed, she became our first calico.

She left us for the RB almost as mysteriously as she arrived. Our friend, who was minding the kitties while we were on vacation, found her one morning lying next to our bed. She had a small amount of blood next to her mouth, but no other evidence of something having happened to her.

Chloe taught us that calicos are mysterious and unpredictable cats, often with bi-polar tendencies. Like Lily Olivia, she often lost her temper and was not the favorite of the other kitties living with us. But, of course, we loved her. And I hope you have enjoyed meeting her.

We are participating again this Saturday in Athena’s Caturday Art Blog Hop. Click on the badge to submit your link or see the other submissions.