My Best Friends Have Hairy Legs by Cierra Rantoul Read Free Book Online

myself for leaving her. She died four and a half years after I left when she was twelve. Apparently she had put on so much weight that one of her bronchial tubes tore, and she suffered for about two weeks struggling to breathe before they took her to the vet and had her put down. I didn’t find out until a year later and it broke my heart all over again that I hadn’t been there for her when she needed me.

C HAPTER 5

    The Current Clan

    All of the pets I had ever had in the past had been happy and well adjusted, never fearful like Trooper had become. Even the cats were friendly and outgoing—contrary to most people’s perceptions of cats being aloof and independent. That made Trooper’s sudden personality change even more baffling.
    Cali (a calico, and also short for California) and her brother, Mandy (short for Mandarin Orange) had come with me when I divorced and moved back to Florida. I had picked them both from a litter of kittens the week after they were born, and so had known both of them since before their eyes even opened. She had always been a bit of a reclusive cat—taking her time to meet and greet when new people came into the house, but both she and Mandy had adored Tink from the moment they met her—something that surprised Tink. I can still remember the “deer in the headlights” look Tink had on her face when both cats—cats she had never seen or met before—rubbed up against her and started giving her kisses. I like to believe that it was because Tink reminded them of Crystal and they saw in her a kindred spirit. In spite of her being elusive when there were a lot of people in the house, Cali was a sweet, affectionate, and gentle cat. She stayed mostly in my bedroom and on the upstairs deck in her favorite place to sun, but would always come to greet me when I got home from work. She loved to sleep with me or snuggle on my lap when we watched TV. Often when I was stretched out in the recliner, I would have Tink on one side of me, Mandy on the other side with his head on Tink’s stomach, Cali on the back headrest. Later we would add Ebony on the extended foot rest. It was quite the balancing act to keep us from tipping when Ebony would jump onto the foot rest, or when I needed to get up. When Oreo joined us, he traded places with Cali, and she and Mandy both would curl up on my lap with Tink. They were all like a blanket of love. Unfortunately, her elusive personality hid an illness from me until it was too late. When I started dating Marc, she had started to hide more often. Perhaps she was as intuitive as Jazzmin had been about a person’s character. I would see her eating occasionally, or out on the deck, and would feel her walking across the bed at night, but seldom saw her downstairs anymore. One day I saw her sunning on the deck and went to pick her up and give her a hug. She had always been a small cat, but when I picked her up that morning she was practically skin and bones. I took her immediately to the vet’s office. She had lost almost all of her body weight and muscle tone. There was nothing obviously apparent, but he said that her breath smelled like her kidneys were failing. He could do a lot of tests that would be very painful on her gaunt body to determine what was wrong, but for a five year old cat to be that emaciated, there most likely was not going to be a cure for her. I gave her kisses, said my goodbyes, and let him end her pain and suffering. Looking back, I think that she knew she was dying and chose that day to stay out where I would be sure to see her so that I could ease the pain for her.
    Mandy, was—and is—healthy and happy. He is an orange striped, stumpy tail Manx, just like his mother, and just like a half sister a few litters before him. Mandy is the most laid back cat I’ve ever had. If I were to give him a human “personality” I would have to say he would be a California surfer dude. When I am bent over a cabinet or gardening project too long, he will