My furfamily, Cleo

Since losing 2 of my loved ones this month, I've decided to write a memory book kind of thing on each of my furkids. This way I can keep it forever, and add to it as new memories are created and new family members come to share their lives with us. This is all for my benefit, but if you would like to read, feel free.

My first kitty of my adult life was Cleo.

Cleo: I was 16 and newly married and pregnant. I found the apartment to be SO empty and couldn’t quite place why, then I realized… NO animals. So, off I went in search of a free kitten. I found a sign in front of a house and they had 2 kitties left. I took the girl, then felt SO bad about separating brother and sister I went back the next day and got the boy.

I was trying to find names that went together and my Grandma said “Anthony and Cleopatra” hence, Cleo and Tony.

Now, when I took her, they’d been romping and playing and having a grand ol’ time. I would have thought they’d missed each other terrible the one night they were apart. When I got Tony home the next day Cleo spat at him and was miffed to have to share HER home. They warmed up quickly though and soon became a pair of demolition kittens.

Cleo was so in love with me, bless her soul, she wouldn’t be in a room if I wasn’t in it. If I went to the bathroom in the night, she came too. That’s when she’d use her litter box, when I went.

She would pounce me and sit on me and relentlessly lick me. I thought she wanted the salt from my skin, but it was just a nervous habit, she did it all her life. If I tried to take my arm or hand from her, she’d grab on tight, sit on it and lick. She did it to Ian too for years.

She was my baby girl for 18 years. I lost my sweet girl to cancer in the mouth. We had to put her to sleep when she could no longer eat and drink. I still think of her often.