My first true cat - not a family cat - was my Katie. I was there when she was born. Her mother was owned by a friend's family. The mother cat and 6 of the 7 babies all died within the first 16 hours. My friend was distraught over everyone dying, so I took Kate home at less than a day old. I was working as a legal secretary at the time, so she went to work with me, staying on a heating pad in my desk drawer and I fed her hourly. When she started to move around, I would drop her off with my grandmother every morning and pick her up on my way home. When I moved away for home for the first time, it was just Kate and me. She was very jealous of everything. My entire life was to revolve around her. She would even steal my glasses during the night because she thought that I would stay in bed with her all day if I didn't have my glasses.
I met my husband and she was kind of sketchy with him at first. But since he fed her every morning before he left for work - about 2 hours before I did - she decided that he was her daddy too.
When our son was born, I was afraid of how she would react. For the first two or three weeks she was a little stand offish. Then one day she showed me how much she actually loved the little one in our lives now. He started fussing in the cradle. She would find me and then run back to the cradle. When she went to check on him, that little touch was enough to rock the cradle and settle him down. And when anyone came to visit, when they held the baby, she was ALWAYS on the back of the couch, hanging over their shoulder. If he started to cry, she would smack them upside their heads and yell at them. She was so funny and always had a special relationship with our son.
I was blessed to have been there when she entered the world and when she left us - 22 years, 4 months and 16 days - a part of my heart went with her. But raising her taught me how to raise orphans and continue to do it to this day.
Love ya Katie girl and miss ya every day.