Cat People

It's official! We are definitely cat people. Maybe it was because during that period of time of losing our dog we had to rely on our cat. Or maybe it was because of the dog we have now we are cat people.

When I was pretty young we had a cat named DeeDee. Actually his name was Schoendist (named after a St. Louis Cardinals baseball player late coach...Red Schoendist only I couldn't pronounce the name. My brother was (is) big on naming his pets after baseball players. Our cat was orange with stripes. He was just a stray but I can remember him a little. I remember I was a weird little kid and took scissors to his whiskers. I am sorry that I remember that about him, but for some reason I remember this. Basically he was a nice cat. I remember seeing pictures of me when I was 3 or 4 with this cat. Then all of a sudden one day in May, DeeDee left and never returned to us. I was around 8 and can remember my brother searching the big ditch in our neighborhood. No cat. No dead body. He wasn't gone. Mom said that the cat must have left because he didn't want to die in front of us. (Which now, I believe was a blessing after seeing my Daisy die).

We went to the Humane Society to look for another pet and we saw this cute little black and yellow dog. They named him "Floppy."(because of his ears). He was a small little dog and my brother taught him tricks. Sit up and shake hands. During this time we would often adopt other cats sometime they got along with Floppy and other times they didn't. We had Toby (we got him when I was 11). The cat would curl up in our sink! You would want to wash your hands and there was this cat in our bathroom sink. Then we had another cat (I got him from a friend) naming him Reggie (after Reggie Jackson, the baseball player).

I always figured I was a "dog person." Floppy was a nice little dog. We all loved him and I could tell him my troubles. We used to feed him chocolate chip cookies (before we knew that chocolate is bad for dogs and could kill them). Floppy died while I was in college, he was 14 years old. Then none of us any pets for a few years. I remember looking for a dog for myself while living in an apartment in Wichita. My dad went with me and found a dog for himself. A beautiful Dalmatian named Samantha. My parents loved that dog. They fed him "everything," from apples to any other kind of people food. The dog was very overweight. The vet put the dog on a diet and told my parents to stop feeding the dog "people food." The dog died about a year or so after his master (my dad) died. My mom has never gotten another dog or a cat. I would find this incredibly lonely!

My brother also got a Dalmatian. He named his dog "Satchel Paige" (yep, another baseball player). He has had him for years. My brother restricts what his dog can and cannot eat. However, the dog has been known to eat pancakes, chocolate milk, and chocolate candy. To which, after my brother found out, has had the dog "throw up" the chocolate as he knows only too well it will kill him. The dog has had it's rounds with various illnesses. Once Satchel dies I think this will be VERY SAD for my brother.

My nephew, however, is also a cat person. His wife had one cat and obtained another cat. He would tell us that cats are low maintenance.

It's true they really are. Sasha is very low maintenance. We just need to feed him, give him fresh water, and clean out his sanitation box. I am very happy that we got an indoor cat. He sleeps where he wants to sleep.

Yesterday I asked everyone which animal they liked more. It was unanimous the cat was our favorite pet. I asked if once Sasha would die would we get another cat. The answere was yes.
We were once dog people but now we are cat people!