My mother and I went to our local shelter “just to look” (you know how that goes). I had lost my feline friend Webster about a year before and was making tentative steps towards becoming a cat mom again – however, the idea of loving another cat as I loved my fluffy, white Persian Webster seemed entirely too remote to contemplate.
In the shelter, I started playing with a little girl kitten, but my mother had spotted a handsome tabby boy at the front that she said we should go look at. His shelter name was “Redford”. The volunteer opened up the door to his little room and I knelt down to check out this guy, who was regarding me calmly from his cat bed. His beautiful green eyes seemed to say, “Thanks for stopping, but I am a little older, so I know you probably won’t pick me”. As I lifted him out of his bed, my mom and I both started laughing – this was a BIG boy, weighing in at about twenty-one pounds. The volunteer told us that his previous owner had left him in an apartment when he moved, and he wasn’t discovered for two weeks. He had little white declawed marshmallow paws, which I tickled and played with, as his posture said, “do with me what you will, you crazy lady”. I even rubbed his tummy and he didn’t seem to mind. It was a done deal. Redford – soon to be Tony – was mine.
Upon meeting Tony, people would inevitably exclaim over his size, and even tease him a little bit…but his quiet fortitude and sweet nature would soon win them over. EVERYONE loved Tony – even my father, who has always been the “anti-cat person” would scratch his head and say, “He’s the only cat I’ve ever liked”. And it was no wonder – if I had to use one word to describe him, it would be KIND. He was just a nice cat – kind to my mother’s cats, any foster cats I might have…I always said that his face had a lot of “integrity”, causing people to roll their eyes at my anthropomorphism – until they met him, of course!
Tony stayed long enough to see me become a mom, and after acting as my daughter’s little guardian for the first month of her life,e succumbed to diabetes. I miss my “stalwart companion” who was the most loyal boy I will ever know. Although I have new “cat kids” whom I love very much, I still find myself looking on websites for cats that look like him, my beloved Woolly Bear. My mother and I say that while he is waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, he no doubt is helping other cats find their way across…because he was, after all, the kindest boy we will ever know.
I love you and miss you every day, Woolly Bear,
| TONY |
| Sep 2003 |
| Marisa Albanese |