In the Beginning

Hi. It is Gen, Jakita’s BFF.

You know the deal – it is my right to tell tales, kitty tails.  What about the Budgie, Momma? Well, you can fit him in,  when you mention Finicky.  But let’s begin with Ginger and Fluffy because they were the first two cats (brother and sister) that Momma & RIP Daddy and, well, they only came when the Run Away Princess moved in. ‘Who is that?’ you ask.  No accounting for stories, they meander like a river that over throws its banks, flooding your basement to such a degree that no one will sell you home insurance again.  That is another story, for another ‘day in the life of….’.  Let’s fill you in with how RIP Daddy and Momma took in the Run Away Princess.

Call Momma Peter Pan, but she always related well to children.  That is why it was so easy to embrace RIP Daddy’s niece Pretty-Little-Dutch-Girl, (his brother’s daughter) who reminded her of that skipping rhyme they used to sing on the school yard play ground: ‘I am a pretty little Dutch girl, As pretty as pretty can be, be, be, And all the boys in my town, Are crazy over me, me, me.’ She was absolutely ‘picture perfect’ with her streaked blonde hair, turquoise blue eyes that were accentuated by her wholesome tanned skin. And so was her behaviour.  Momma found that very odd.  After all, she had nieces and nephews who got in all kinds of trouble growing up, in words and deeds, but Pretty-Little-Dutch-Girl’s mother swore she never did or said anything bad.

Give me a ‘for instance’, you say.  Well, one day Daddy’s sweet sister was visiting with her rambunctious son.  He kept jumping on the couch, his mother kept pleading with him to stop.  So Momma’s five your old niece stepped in.  She looked at Daddy’s sister and said, “If I had a kid like him, I would not take him anywhere.” Daddy’s sister left. Problem solved.

So being from a fine family of normal, mouthy children, Momma tried to talk to Daddy that she did not think it was healthy to be perfect. He got very riled at her, reminding her that Pretty-Little-Dutch-Girl’s grandfather had been a much respected, important in the Dutch community minister and that she probably had inherited all of his good genes.  But are we not taught that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God?

Now there are optical illusions, delusions  and downright lies that can mask family life. At the home base the Pretty-Little-Dutch-girl struggled and failed, to be  perfect, as she entered her teenage years.   That is why she became the Run Away Princess, who moved in with a (girl)friend. The disengaged parents agreed to the deception until…Momma put a letter in the Big Smoke newspaper that touched their cold hearts.

The Run Away Princess moved in with RIP Daddy and Momma the day the letter was published. Her first order of business was to have a cat since her mother would not allow pets in her house.  And that, Virginia, is how Ginger (male ginger tiger-striped) and Fluffy (female soft fluffy ginger tabby) came into our lives. Don’t kid yourself, Momma fed them, RIP Daddy changed their litter boxes but their loyalty was always to the Run Away Princess who had rescued them from bedlam and brought them to an oasis. When she would go out, they would sit outside her bedroom door, awaiting the return of their Masteress (so to speak).

 

They moved out five years later when the Princess, no longer a Run Away, moved back home with her parents. Suddenly pets were okay, if it meant they could get their daughter back.  Live and learn.  Live and learn.

And the Lesson.  First off: Try it, you just may like it! The Princess’ mother loved those cats, indulged their every whim, even keeping them when the Princess married and moved out, worrying over them as she had about her own daughter. Go figure, eh!