Miss Ashley

 I had to say a sad goodbye to my kitty yesterday. Her name was Ashley. It was SO hard. She was 14 years old. She was a very sweet kitty

Ashley came into our lives by set of event. On the day we moved into this house, someone dumped Ashly into my sister in laws yard. She was about to give birth. My sister in law being the cat person she is took Ashley in and cared for her until the kittens were born. Miss Ashley was a very good mama to her kittens. My sister in law found good homes for the kittens and asked us if we wanted the mama.

Of course we do, we had a new house, 3 kids, a dog the only thing that was missing was a cat. It was a family vote for her name. Ashley. Ashley was all black and was tiny for a cat but her might was large.  I tried very hard to make Ashley an inside cat. She wanted no part of it. Ashley ruled the roost inside and out. If another cat came into our yard she would puff up her tail and chase them off.

Ashley loved to torment the dogs. She would hide on one of the stairs so when the dogs would try to go down she would reach up, just like you see on the cartoon, each claw would pop out and she would get the dog. I could almost hear her laughing. Another way she would torment the dogs she would sit in front of their favorite toy or their food bowl. If they dared to come to close POW POW POW she would get them with a right, left, right before they knew what was hitting them.

When we would take the dogs for a walk, she would follow along behind, hiding under parked cars, and slinking around houses.  She really was a family kitty. If the dogs ate table scraps she wanted table scraps, if the dogs got a treat, she wanted a treat. When the dogs would go out, she followed behind. Most of the time she stayed out longer.

I only have 2 bad memories of Ashley.  One Easter morning,  Ashley cought a humming bird, I looked outside and she was playing with something in the grass. I thought she had got a mouse as she was quite a good hunter. When I got close enough I could see it was a humming bird. I was devastated. I tried again to make her an inside cat. Ashley said it will be a cold day in *** before I will stay in the house. The second thing that happed was I put bio spot flea medication on her. She went into seizures. We almost lost her. That was at least 5 years ago. She was never the same after that. The Vet said that I would be shocked at how many animals have horrid reaction to Bio Spot. Believe me we never used it again.

As she aged her whiskers turned pure white. She didn't care about other cats in the yard anymore, Ashly would let the dogs take of them.  She and the dogs like to sunbath in our little court yard. She loved attention and wanted you to pet her all day long. At night when my gig a low and I would watch TV, my gig a low would put a pillow on his lap, she would curl up on it, because she was happy being with us.

 I am really missing her.