Thursday, June 5, 2008

Pepper



We have a senior cat named Pepper and she is very loved. Sorry, it's just too difficult for me to call her old. Gregg and I adopted Pepper into our family right before Christmas in 1995. She was just days away from being put down because no one wanted her. She wasn't the most social cat. Either she knew she had a good home waiting for her with me or she just flat out suckered me, I like to think it was the latter scenario. When I saw Pepper and opened her cage, she immediately jumped into my arms and I instantly fell in love with her.

Pepper's first few months with us were a bit strained. She didn't like the dogs and upon first sight of Joshua, our big weimeraner, swiped him right across the nose! Not a great start. Also, Pepper hid for what seemed like forever, only coming out when we were in bed and would lay at our feet. She slowly came around. First, she would sit on the floor by our chair or the couch. Then she would sit on the arm of where ever we were sitting. I was shocked when Pepper finally climbed into my lap and overjoyed at the same time. That was the major turning point in our lives with this amazing cat.

Pepper has been doing some very odd things lately and I'm starting to worry about my precious kitty. She is after all 13 plus years old. Pepper was probably a year old when we rescued her. Anyway, I'm trying to prepare for the future because I don't think she's going to be around for much longer. One of the things I'm trying to figure out is what to tell Violet when Pepper is no longer with us. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.



Violet and Pepper have had a love/hate relationship. Violet loves Pepper and Pepper hates Violet. Okay, maybe hate is too strong of a word, it's more like loathes Violet but tolerates her. I have to give Pepper credit though because she has never hissed at, bitten, or scratched Violet whenever Violet gets a little too rough. It's only been recently that Violet has gotten the full concept of being gentle with Pepper and doesn't tug on her tail or hair. That has helped in their relationship a great deal. I think Violet is going to take the loss of Pepper as hard as her Mommy and I am not prepared for that. In the meantime, we are enjoying our precious kitty and doing everything we can to keep her comfortable, not to mention spending more time loving on her.

Pepper is what I call a "Hemingway" cat. She has extra toes on her front paws. As a result, her feet are large. And just like Hemingway, I never want another cat if it doesn't have extra toes, there's just something extra special about them (pun not intended). When I look at Pepper I can't help but think God painted her while she was asleep. Perfect white socks on her front feet and white knee highs on her hind legs and white from under her chin all the way down. Simply beautiful. Also, for a long haired cat, Pepper rarely sheds. It helps that she gets a weekly brushing and she LOVES it! I think Pepper would actually brush herself if it were possible. We have definitely been blessed with this beautiful creature of God's and honored to be her "people".

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