We will never forget...

Picky-Picky...born, late summer of 1997-died, today, February 9, 2010, with her family around her after a long illness. She came to us feisty and so cute she was heart breaking, she left us just as full of life, love, and determined to beat the odds. We will miss her.

When we first found her living outside with the rest of the barn cats in the fall of 1997, she ran around only by the power of her front legs... we weren't sure if she was a cat, she moved so fast, tumbling off the porch and disappearing, we'd look at each other and ask..."What was that?"

When we finally captured her the day before Thanksgiving 1997 (as I recall, it was a very snowy and bitter cold autumn that year), she entered our home fighting, and certainly not wanting any part of people... our son caught her in the midst of the barn cat feeding frenzy on the porch that morning, handed her off to me, and I tucked her inside my coat, where she fought, hissed, clawed, and bit... I dropped her off inside the bathroom while my Fred was getting ready for work, the bathroom was warm and steamy from our showers, so she warmed up, and once she got a dish of food all to herself...she changed her mind about people rather quickly. Within a few hours of being inside where it was warm, her little hind legs began to work, and she toddled about, and found "lap" very acceptable.

Her first trip to the vet, she was declared to be a 'unique little kitty' and we were cautioned that she might not live much beyond her first year because of her various physical handicaps.

Just the tiniest of paws...

At her prime, she might've tipped the scales at 8lbs, she never got bigger than a 6 month old kitten. Her spine was severely curved with scoliosis, and her hind quarters were crippled, she crab-walked in an odd gait with her tail whipping around like a rudder keeping her going straight... watching her run was a sight to see, the little hind legs would swing wildly one way, the tail the other...
A Picky on my shoulder! My what big green eyes she had!

The last five years, she slowly went blind from glaucoma, and her hind quarters were becoming weak, she'd tumble over very often, and kept within a small territory of the kitchen and dining room area. A urinary tract infection and chronic constipation due to the weakness in her hind quarters became a quality of life issue that we could not overlook, we didn't want her to suffer, so today after treatment with antibiotics, our vet advised us that we should put her to sleep... it was the kindest thing to do. She lived a long life with lots of love, and she made us so happy. A unique little kitty.


Picky-Picky's first Christmas (sleeping in Gramma's lap)


Picky-Picky loved taking walks on her leash... how many cats do?

She loved finding the sunny places...


Picky-Picky was very often described as being shaped like a bowling pin...not usually a very good model for photographs, she was very busy...
This was the first photo...she was famous for moving at the last second...


A linocut from October of 1998...

She was always a treat to draw...I thought about a children's book at one time... a Halloween tale "Scare D. Cat", this was a preliminary pen and ink drawing... I didn't get very far with the story.


I cannot begin to tell you how much I will miss my little girl.

Home sick in bed with a stupid cold

And it's been a bitter cold day too...but I didn't go out in it to take this picture...this is from another frosty morning a while back...

I've done a bit of sleeping, brewing tea, more sleeping, lying about drinking tea...and of course, you drink enough tea and one must pee...it's always good to flush the sickly body...

My tea cold tonic is a special blend:

2 bags of chai
1 bag of ginger (or a chunk sliced off of a fresh ginger root, which I did today)
1 bag of lemon zinger (if there are not fresh lemons in the house)
5-9 peppercorns (whatever looks right)
12 cups or so of hot water.

I just run the water through our coffee maker, have the fixin's in the pot and let it brew and keep warm (refrigerate what you don't use, warm up for later)...fill the cup, add honey...it's very spicy, very soothing for an irritated throat and an unwell body...

I thought I'd talk about my little kitty, Picky-Picky. Here she is...the little button...she found a patch of sunshine, or it found her...in my dictionary, her picture is next to the definition for 'Adorable'...
This unique little kitty came to us in the late fall of 1997, one of the many kittens that were born that year in the empty barn across the road from our house. When I first became aware of her I didn't know for sure she was a cat because of her unusual mode of transportation, and incredible speed. When I finally got a good look at this little creature that would appear at the food dish out on the porch, but it would quickly disappear by tumbling over the edge and hiding underneath the porch...I discovered that she was dragging her hind legs behind her, and was just running about on front leg power. Poor baby (she was only about three months old, if even that old, a definite runt of the litter, but with a will to live. I tried capturing her one day, but got my thumb bit in the process! She was so vicious it was startling, hissing and growling, holy crap she startled me! So I dropped her, and watched her scuttle away, pitiful, but I had to admire her spunk. (She had chomped on me so hard that it bruised the thumbnail through my work glove!)

The snow came early that year, and every day I put the food out for the barn orphans, I'd watch for her, and didn't always see her, I feared she was dead by November when I hadn't seen her in so long. Well, I was wrong. Our son was setting out to catch the school bus one snowy day before Thanksgiving, and there was the little one in the midst of the feeding frenzy around the food dish, she couldn't scamper away, he plucked her up, and handed her to me "Here, you want this?" he asked. I took her, stuffed her inside my coat, struggling and hissing, thank goodness I always wear lots of layers (I think she peed on me too!) I took her inside and stuck her inside the bathroom where my Fred was taking his morning bath, it was warm and steamy in there, so she hid behind the toilet with that "don't look at me" attitude. Soon enough she became quite tame, being warm and having food all to herself without sharing with her mom and siblings took the edge off. Lap became acceptable rather quick too, within an hour we became friends.

This is the very first picture I took of her...

Okay, so where's the wind up key, right? She looks like a toy...or maybe a cartoon character. All I know is this wee thing effectively broke my heart...the cuteness factor was off the scale.

I studied this wee cat, little pug-nosed face with large round green eyes, black and white fur, the little soul patch on her chin always makes me laugh, and the nasally meow that is more like "Ewe", and sometimes she says "Oot?", then she has that scrappy shriek that is still startling, I don't think I can spell it...it scares me too much.

To my relief, the little hind legs worked once she warmed up, I had feared that she had been hit by a car, but there was definitely something not right. The vet saw her the very next day...I always fear the worst when a wee kitty has their first check up, especially this one with her kind of troubles. He took one look at her sitting on his exam table, big eyes and very undersized for her age, he proclaimed "What a unique little kitty." For a vet who sees hundreds of cats a week to say that, I knew she was special. He looked her over, other than having a case of worms, being under nourished, she was healthy, but the ligaments in her knees are displaced, so she walks with a bowlegged wobble, and her spine is slightly crooked between her shoulders like scoliosis, her tail flails around behind her like a rudder to keep her going straight...pitiful, but it makes me happy to have her happy and alive. The vet didn't think she'd live beyond her first year. Well, she's becoming an old lady now, 12 years this summer...she never grew much beyond the size of a 6 month old kitten, she tips the scales at about 6-7 lbs at her roundest, tiny paws the size of my thumb pad, her little black bit of a nose is smaller than a pencil eraser, she's very wee compared to the four boys...but she's feisty, and can handle those stinkers. She's blind in one eye now, although we thought she might lose it, it seems to be getting better all on its own (well, as good as it's going to get).
A very tiny white mitten with black pads...

She's such a little character...she chases shadows for fun these days, she's waiting for one here...

This is one of her favorite baskets by the woodstove...that is a toy mouse...the darn thing does look a little bit too real...the cats love them.

So that's my story of wee Picky-Picky, the Picky Pie...