Times have changed, thank goodness. Now, we raise our babies, teach them to behave, train them to use the litter box and not to scratch on the furniture.
Our Babies looking out the patio door in Virginia
I started motherhood young. Yes, when I was a little girl, I loved animals........mostly cats and dogs. Cats mostly. But, we were not allowed to have cats or dogs in the house. Back in our parents’ day, animals lived outside. I have always felt that we should be allowed to share our lives with these warm, furry, loving and friendly souls. They were supposed to be with me in my bed and in my house. No one could comfort me like my cats did.
I took the screen out of the window near the bed that I slept in. At night the cat would come to my window. I would quietly raise the window and let the cat in. He would sleep on my bed with me. Early in the morning, my dad would get up and see the cat and swear. That **** cat stayed in all night! No matter, that he slept on the bed and was warm and safe all night. That wasn’t what mattered. The cat foiled him and stayed in. Of course, I had a hand in it, but I didn’t own up to it at the time. The cat was ready to go out and my dad obliged.
That was my childhood. I’ve always loved animals. I still do.
My mother loved animals too. I don’t know if she was allowed to have cats or dogs in her house when she was growing up. I suspect not. They lived on a farm in south Florida. I never knew her father, my grandfather. He passed away before I was born. But, listening to the stories she told about him, he was really not a fun person to be around. Life was not easy then.
My parents lived through the 1930's depression. I can’t even imagine how it was when they were kids. I don’t know much about my dad’s family because he never really talked about it. But, my mother used to tell us that my dad and his brother, Jack, went to bed hungry many nights.
My parents, Shirley and Jonesie
When my mother was a little girl she had to help in the fields of the family farm in south Florida. She talked about being out in the sun, working. One day she was in the sun too long and everything went black. She thought she lost her sight, but she just fainted. Thank God she was okay.
My Mom and one of her dogs
We are so spoiled today. We have hats and sunglasses and suntan lotion. Back then, she might have had a hat, but nothing else.
The first cat that I remember my mother falling in love with was a gray tabby cat. One of our neighbors brought him over and asked my mother if she wanted him. He was just a kitten. He had a white bib and white paws. She named him “Sam”.
I was young then, but I remember “Sam”. He was the typical dark stripe tabby. He loved my mother and she loved him. I can’t remember any personal interactions between “Sam” and me so I can’t get real sentimental about him. I just know how it is to love a cat and now I know how my mother must have felt when “Sam” disappeared one day. She looked for him every afternoon when she came home from work.
Back in those days, cats weren’t taken to the vet and neutered and vaccinated like they are now. “Sam” used to come home and he had been in fights with other cats, etc. He had scars and notches in his ears. It was one of those “accepted” things back then. Thank goodness for the progress we’ve made with our pets now days.
Well, “Sam” must have been gone for a week or so, and one day my mother was walking up the road by our house looking for him. She heard a little “meow” and looked in the weeds next to the road. There was “Sam”. He had been hurt in a fight and had hidden away to either die or get over it.
I now can appreciate my mother’s happiness in finding the cat that she loved so much. She brought him back to the house. He had lost so much weight in the week or so that he had been in the weeds or wherever he was until she found him. Apparently he was farther away and had gotten better and was coming home. She didn’t give up looking for him and I wouldn’t have either.
When “Sam” came home, I remember my dad not minding that “Sam” would sit in the window of the kitchen while my mother cooked dinner. Pop was actually glad to see “Sam” too. He didn’t dislike animals, he just didn’t know whether they should be in the house or not. He was confused. His parents had always said that animals should be outside. I think that’s why my mother was like that too.....until now.
In later years, my parents finally got wise to the idea that cats and dogs can live in the house too. The days of living in the yard were over. Of course, that realization came after I left home, to my dismay. I may have never left home if I could have had my cats in the house with me! Just kidding, of course......not!
Pop had a dog that he loved like an only child. Her name was “Taffy”. She was spoiled rotten. She stayed in the house and was only out when on a leash. He actually took her for walks. What a change from the old days when dogs belonged in the yard running loose! “Taffy” slept on the bed between Mom and Pop.
Pop talked to “Taffy” like she was his baby. I can relate to that. Charlie and I talk to “Sheila” and our cats like they are our babies. No need to “talk down to them”.
My mother also had a German Shepherd named “Wolf”. He was given to her by a couple who were moving away. It always stuck in her memory that they brought him to her in a little sports car. They drove up and he was sitting in the middle with his head sticking up. I’m not sure why they gave him up, but he was a good dog.
One of the neighbors had a dog named “Jackie”. She was a mixed shepherd breed. She used to come over to the house and visit “Wolf”. They played and got along fine. “Jackie” stayed more and more and finally one day she decided she wanted to live there permanently. The neighbors were okay with it. My mother re-named her “Mrs. Wolf”. Mom got attached to “Mrs. Wolf” and “Mrs. Wolf” got attached to mom.
I remember “Mrs. Wolf”, and I think she was a sweet little dog. One day "Mrs. Wolf” was missing. When she came home, she was hurt badly. My parents took her to the vet. There was nothing that could be done for her. Her head was injured. She was put to sleep.
My mother was so upset when they returned from the vet. She was crying. I remember she said, “I know it’s silly. She’s just a dog.”
When someone says, “It’s “just a dog or just a cat”, I cringe. No, it’s someone you love with all of your heart. And your heart breaks in two when they die. They are our precious babies.
Pop didn’t live to see his precious “Taffy” pass away. It would have broken his heart. But, she was there that morning when he passed away. I’m sure that she knew what she had lost when he died. She missed him. She loved him unconditionally and he had loved her that way too. I’m glad she had come into his life and showed him what it was like to have a companion like her.
Years later, my mother came to visit us when we lived in Virginia. She brought her little black cat, “Scoot”, with her. “Scoot” stayed in the bedroom and was fine.
Mom, Mother's Day 2003
My mother was determined to make friends with my“Taz”. She always loved striped cats, ever since she had “Sam”. Our first loves always stick in our minds I guess.
Every morning Mom would sit at the table in the kitchen and have her coffee. She worked the crossword puzzle from the paper. “Taz” had a little bowl on the table with dry food, just for him.
I told Mom that I would move the bowl from the table so Taz wouldn’t get up there. She said, “No, I want him to get up here. I want to pet him.”
Such a change from when I was a little girl. If I could have, I would have let my cat sit on the table with me back then while I had my breakfast. But, something told me that Pop would not be frowning on the scene he saw in my kitchen now.
It took a couple of weeks, but soon Taz was coming up on the table and eating from his little dish, sharing the table with his “grandmother”. They sat there together, Mom working her crossword puzzle and Taz, gazing out the window. I would give anything today to have a picture of the two of them together.
More later...............
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