She was a glorious cat both in color and definition. Found wandering the streets next to the ELKS Club in Sweet Home, they could not keep her so we were called. She was a bit of a scrappy one this kitten- pure calico attitude and she attached herself right away to Mike. She would lay on his lap when he came home from work, follow him out to the shop when he was working on building his custom knives and sleep on his side of the bed every night. Me- the only thing I was to this kitty was a human can opener. But that was okay because she had to have a lot of meds when she first arrived here.

The one thing I could count on was the minute the can was popped open, she would slide into the kitchen and start to meow constantly until the food was deposited on the dish and going into her mouth. I swear she had Siamese mixed in that stray DNA somewhere.

Everyone who visited here, wanted her and about 10 years ago, I put up a donation box in town with her portrait front and center on the box. A few days later I get a call and an angry male voice says:

“You have my cat!”

“Excuse me? Who is this?”

“Doesn’t matter my name, I WANT MY CAT!”

Confused, I responded that I have a lot of cats at the sanctuary and which one was he talking about? He was talking about Glory Bee although her name he insisted was Marshmallow (ugh)! He said he had been at one of the local stores and he was surprised to see her. She had been missing over a year and he and his wife feared she was dead. His wife he said, had cancer and when the ambulance came to take her one night- Marshmallow got scared and bolted. He didn’t stay to find her- he followed his wife to the hospital and ended up staying with her there for four days (she later passed)

I told him I would meet him and give him his cat and we made arrangements to meet at a local restaurant and he never showed. In fact, I never heard from him again. So we kept Glory Bee right where she belonged.

This cat has totally ignored me all these years except at meals. Like I said, glued to mike and when he got sick and had to be in a nursing home, she visited him with me. He would refer to her as his “Food Thief” because while he was eating, she would hop on his lap and wait for him to get distracted and quick draw out her front paw and pull a meaty prize off his plate!  I had to be careful what I served, not only to protect Mike’s heart, but also to be sure that the food was cat safe. That’s how quick she was- her favorite to nab was meatloaf.

Three weeks ago, she was no where in sight- she was hiding. No matter how many cans of food I popped, she never appeared. I finally found her way under the hamper in the hallway and when I reached for her, she growled so I let her be. That night – she jumped on my bed and head-bumped me so hard she left a bruise on my chin! She was telling me something. I would feed, she wouldn’t care. I would carry her food to her- she wouldn’t eat- every night for two weeks in the wee hours of the morning she would jump on my bed and do her desperate head bump. I finally decided despite just losing Taylor, I best listen to Ms. Glory and that’s why we ended up this morning putting her to sleep and out of pain.

Could I have kept her alive for awhile longer? Oh yes, I could have with pain meds, B-12 shots, Lasix, fluids and a special diet- but at what cost and why? She had a glorious run- she was loved loved loved and she will be deeply, deeply missed-