I would like to share with you someone who is/was special to me and my family. Her name is Feline (Fa-Lean). Feline was with me and my family for 16 years. She was very temperamental and standoffish. Most days I loved her but there were a few days I wondered why I put up with her. I think most people feel that way about their family members and she was definitely a part of my family.
Feline was found as a kitten with a bag of food tied around her neck by friends of the family. She was so little and the bag of food weighed so much that she could not leave but neither could she access the food. The boys who found her gave her to my brother who hid her in his room. I noticed for several days that his bedroom light was on and decided one day to check why his light was on. I went into his room and this ball of fur jumped out at me. It scared me and I let out a little screech and then I saw her and thought "oh, how cute." Now let me tell you, growing up I was always afraid of cats ever since my neighbors cat climbed up my front, scratched and bit me when I was five. After that I wouldn't have anything to do with cats and we never really had pets growing up. Now here was this ball of fluff with spots and stripes looking up at me with the most unusual eyes. I picked her up and carried her to my room. While in my room she bit and scratched me, drawing blood, which brought back my fear of cats and I was over her cuteness...she was a wild she-devil. I took her back to my brothers room and gently "threw" her into his room ( I bent over and placed her on his floor).Well I figured this ball of fluff would be the perfect thing to get my brother in trouble with because my mother always said growing up "no pets." So I waited for her to get done with work. When she got home I told her she had to go up to my brothers room and see what he had in there. I think she thought he was doing something illegal! Joking...maybe. Well she went up there, opened the door and out pops the ball of fur. I kept thinking "Here it comes, Here it comes, he is in so much trouble." Well guess what? I was totally wrong! My mother bent over, picked her up and fell in love. Let me tell you I was disappointed in her response. She said we were keeping her (of course at this time we didn't know it was a girl...we didn't have pets growing up, she was small and we couldn't see anything). We eventually found out her sex and then had to come up with a name. It was hard to do because there was 4 kids and an adult giving their opinions. She was quite wild, attacking anything in sight, biting and scratching (the reason why I didn't want her). My mother decided since she was such a wild cat we would call her Feline (Fa-Lean). I know, original but not very original, but it suited her anyways. Now this is how we ended up with a pet we were told we could never have and I eventually fell in love with her, despite her constant scratching and biting of me and everyone else.
Jump forward a few years. Her behavior did not calm down and she sometimes seemed even wilder than when we found her. She had carved up a few people and neighborhood cats. At this time we decided we couldn't keep her, there were other issues behind that decision besides her being so mean, but anyways we gave her to a family friend who lived several miles away. We felt she would be better with the friend because their home was more rural and there were no kids or pets around that could be hurt by her wildness. Well a few days later they no longer had her and could not find her, we thought she could have been hit by a car or just run away. Several weeks went by and everyone gave up hope of finding her. I was walking home from work, late one night, and this thing jumped out at me, attacked my legs and I let out a little screech. When I was able to figure out what was attacking me, boy was I surprised. It was Feline. She had somehow found her way home to us. We had a discussion between the family and decided we would not send her back to our friends. We figured if she decided to find her way home to us from several miles away we would make the effort to put up with her behaviors and keep her. We always wondered how she made her way to us, what she ate, where she slept. She was a very determined cat.
Jump forward several years. Me and Feline had a love/hate relationship. She would come purring up to me, bumping her head against me, wanting to be rubbed. As soon as I would go to pet her she would attack. Biting and scratching me, sometimes drawing blood. She was very feisty. If a cat ever came near the back door of our home she would attack the door, letting out a little screech, and try to get at them. Well, one day I was standing by the back door when a stray cat came along. I had bare feet. Feline saw that cat and came running and since I was in the way I was sliced and diced on my foot. We both let out a little screech (maybe mine wasn't so little) and I tried to walk away. When I looked down I saw I was bleeding quite a bit. The attack lasted just a few seconds but she had gotten me on the top, side and bottom of my foot with her claw. Believe me I was mad and a little scared. This was the worst her attacks had gotten. I didn't know what to do. After I patched up my wounds I picked her up and had a talk with her. I told her, her behavior had to stop because people, herself, and other animals were getting hurt. She had gotten into a fight with a stray cat a few weeks previously and was missing a patch of fur on her back end...it took forever to grow back in.
Well it seems after that talk she became calmer. She was still wild, would scratch and bite but it wasn't so hard or as often. She would come up to us more often now wanting to be scratched and loved without attacking in return. She has also been there for me when I have suffered from a medical condition. There were times that I would pass out and when I came to Feline would be sitting there, licking my hand, waiting for me to come around. We seemed to have a new understanding and a better relationship.
As she aged she became calmer but was still very feisty. She never seemed to age and was in good health. I knew younger cats that didn't have as much energy as our Feline and we wondered if she would ever start to age. We figured she would outlive us all.A week ago Feline went missing. We looked everywhere for her and posted Ads looking for her. My neighbors and friends helped to spread the word but without any luck. Feline was mainly an indoor cat and when she got out she wouldn't go far. She was aging but seemed just as feisty as ever when we last saw her. Well yesterday we found her and unfortunately she had passed on. My family and I are devastated. Despite her issues and ours as well, we all loved each other and her passing is deeply felt. For a family that said no pets, and for me that hated cats she had wormed her way into our hearts and she will never be able to be replaced.
I thank you for taking the time to read this post. I promise that future posts will be more positive. I just felt I needed to share Feline's and my story. There is much I left out and as you can read both of us had our faults. I just hope this special member of our family can sense how much she is missed.
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