CFA Personal Pet Stories................by BJ

Juli-2011














This story was sent in to us by Jen of JenniferLynnProductions on Artfire and a CFA member. Jennifer is an award-winning artist and photographer with many interests. All items in her shop are created with the intention of honoring the Earth.
Thanks for this heartwarming story, Jen.
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I have eight cats, but for this post, I want to talk about Juli (pronounced “Julie.”) Juli came to me in 2004. It had been a very rainy 4th of July, and after having spent most of the day tromping around DC in ankle-deep rain, my partner at the time and I were home. As we walked up the street to get some refreshments for the evening, I stopped him. I had heard something...or rather felt something.

The traffic was very loud, so I realized I had felt it before I heard it: a series of small, desperate, lost meows coming from a nearby building. We were able to track down the location of the little one: She had been shut in, we think by accident, the basement of one of the apartment buildings in our complex. When we got there the door was unlocked.

The cat was very small and skinny. She had patches of hair missing from her ears, mainly. Despite her shyness, she did end up coming right up to me, and I was able to pick her up. She was just skin and bones. It was clear she'd been shut in this room for some time. We rushed her right home and took her to the vet immediately. We were told that, had we not found her, she probably would have died within a day or two. By her teeth, I realized that she was not a kitten at all, but was around a year or so old. The vet agreed with me, once he had looked at her. She was not spayed and had what turned out to be some sort of skin disease on her ears. Ultimately, we had to keep her sequestered for something insane like six weeks or so!

As she settled in, we were able to determine she had probably been a pet before, because she was not afraid of us, and we were able to get her to eat, which was a huge relief! Just to tell you how spoiled this cat has been from the start: In order to get her to eat, my ex bought and roasted her a chicken! Her very own chicken! For the first few weeks we had her, and occasionally after that,he would roast her chicken and she'd get that with her cat food. (Hey—whatever works!)

She did go into heat, but my other cats are spayed and neutered, and we still had her sequestered. I couldn't stand the racket and the “scheming,” though, so I paid extra and took a chance on having her spayed while she was in heat. Heat cycles are unpredictable. I have been told and have read that they can come into and out of heat very rapidly. I did not want to have to be on guard all the time.

I'm very grateful we found her, and I feel we were meant to. She bonded to us both very quickly and is to this day one of my most loyal cats. Getting her to eat has never been an issue. We think that, in the beginning when we found her, she simply couldn't get to food. She gets away with it, because she has such a cute, little face, a sweet smile, and a pretty, feminine, little meow.

I named her “Juli,” because we found her “on the fourth of Juli!” It was my turn to name a cat (yes, my ex and I took turns picking their names,) and I wanted to give her something festive and fitting. I ran through a whole bunch of seasonal names. Nothing fit, until I started to play with “July” and came up with “Juli.” When I said that name, Juli chirped in approval! (This was just on the way home from her former “prison!”)
Juli is spoiled and happy and fat now, and I think back to her beginnings, and I am so very grateful that she picked me to help her change her luck. She is my Julicakes, and I love her very much! Everybody does, really. I have one friend who would probably take her if he had a home where he could have a pet, and he's not even a cat person! Alas, she is spoken for.
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We always welcome stories from our Crafting for Animals Guild and Blog followers. The stories should be within your immediate family and about any of your past or present pets or animal rescues that you or a family member have been a part of. We welcome stories from all of our CFA Guild members and followers.
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