A Bit About Abby

Here's one of the best snaps I've gotten in recent months. The guy on the left is Frankie and the girl on the right is Abby. I was sitting in my Lazy Boy recliner watching some DVD or other when I looked over and saw this adorable site.

Let me back up a bit. As you can see by the pic at the top of the blog, I live in a log home in the woods. I've lived here for over five years now. The first autumn right after moving in I began to notice that I had a mouse. I believed it was A mouse. As it happens in the woods, every year in the fall the deer mice begin to seek out a nice cozy safe place to winter in. It took me until the next season to realize that it wasn't A mouse. I had long given up the whole live trap ideal and had resorted to snap traps. I was regularly catching/killing up to 2-3 dozen mice a season.

Needless to say I longed for a feline solution. My problem, however, were my trusty canine pals. I was very reluctant to introduce a tiny little kitten into the house with the four dogs. Cosmo, may he rest in peace, would always over react in the presence of a cat, as though he was shouting out, "Stand back, don't panic, it's an evil cat. I'll protect you!" Frankie, on the other hand, would probably kill the poor thing with rambunctious play.

Yet to bring an adult cat into the picture, fully clawed, might mean harm to the dogs.

So a year ago last fall, I had gone next door to the neighbors to see their son recently home from the hospital and Abby goes scooting by the sliding glass door. After a brief case of mistaken identity, I learn that their cat had had a pair of kitten sisters that summer and they were now five months old. Unfortunately there was already another litter upstairs so the girls had been pushed out of the house to fend for themselves as outdoor cats.

Along come my dogs and I watch as the kittens assume defensive postures and defend themselves and a light bulb goes off over my head. Needless to say, the girls soon were mine. Abby who was being called "Johnny Five Fingers" because of her opposable thumbs was quickly given a more appropriate and dignified name. You may recall that ABBy is short for Anne Boleyn Boadicea. Her sister who was essentially nameless was christened Catherine of Aragon Latipha or Cal for short.

It took a number of months to work out the in house logistics. For awhile the cats had the basement and the dogs stayed upstairs. However, around the time I moved my t.v. room to the main floor I began to feel that the cats were being slighted and began to introduce them to the house at large.

Frankie got whapped a few times but quickly learned to respect the girls who had grown significantly by then. There were other clues that we were moving beyond detente to tolerance to acceptance, but this photo was my first clue that we had family bonding occurring.

You can see Abby's little thumb in the picture there. If you haven't read my post below, then you don't know that she is terminally ill. I just discovered Sunday night that she has Feline Leukemia Virus and is likely to have less than an a year or two to live.

In addition to her thumbs, she has the most beautiful eyes. They are a bright green with a small ring of pea green around her pupils. There is a very small chance that as she fights this current episode of leukemia (she's on steroids and her blood counts are responding) that she will go into remission and live a more normal life). Keep the prayers coming. Peace.