Princess Charlotte

Our Sweet Charlotte left us on January 9th.  She had a stroke the day before and, while she had had a couple of smaller strokes in the weeks before and had recovered, she didn't bounce back from this latest one. We have seventeen years of history, so this post will be a little longer than usual.

I adopted her on May 7th, 2000, when I was a newly single woman living in her first owned-alone home. I had been living without a cat for about eight months and I was starting to feel that yearning to come home after work and find another little soul in the house. Someone to talk to and take care of.

It was the first weekend in May and the SPCA Adopt-a-Thon was in full swing. I looked in the paper and saw photos of many cats waiting for homes at the Placer County SPCA in Roseville. I didn't realize that all of the area SPCAs were having this event, or I would have gone to the local Sacramento SPCA. But God had a plan. Charlotte was waiting for me.

There was a crazy late spring storm going on. High winds and pummeling rain. Normal people would have stayed home, made a fire, and cuddled up with a good book.  Not me. I had to get a cat! I grabbed my Thomas Brothers map, got in my car, and headed through the storm and flooded streets for the unknown territory known as Roseville.

I got lost several times and seriously thought about turning around and going home even more times, but something told me I had to go on. I had to get a cat that very day. Finally, I saw the SPCA sign and turned into the parking lot. I had made it.

I walked into the warm building and was directed to the cat room. So many cats! There must have been at least 75 cats. Meow, meow, mrrrrppp, yowl, Me Out, Me Out! There were quite a few humans there, too, looking for the perfect little fur kid.

I looked at every single cat but didn't find one that really called to me. I was starting to wonder if this trip had been a waste of time and gas. I turned to leave and then realized there was a whole row of cages that I had missed. I started looking at the furry prisoners when a very loud family came into the room. Two children were screaming and running up to the cages, sticking their fingers in and yelling. I thought "OK, it's time to go". But I had one more cage to look into.

At first, I thought the cage was empty. I didn't see a cat. Then I spied a beautiful kitty huddled against the back of the cage, her eyes huge with fear. I read the poster taped to the front of the cage.

I thought "I don't know if this is the cat for me, but I do know she would be terrified if the loud family got ahold of her. I have to save her!" I flagged down a shelter worker and asked if I could get to know Charlotte. She scurried out to secure a private room and then came back and got Charlotte out of her enclosure. I followed her out of the room, down the hall, through the front lobby and into a completely empty room, save for a wooden desk pushed up against the back wall. There was one window looking out onto the parking lot. The shelter worker, Laura, placed Charlotte on the desk, told me to take my time, and left. Charlotte and I were alone.

I started talking in a soft voice, reassuring her that I wasn't going to hurt her. I reached out to pet her but she jumped down and somehow got behind the desk within about two seconds. Great. I could see her crouched under the desk, peering at me. I continued talking to her, telling her about my condo, the nice little patio, all of my experience as a cat mother. She was unimpressed.

After about five minutes I thought "I can't spend all day here trying to talk this cat into coming out on her own. I have to take charge."
I reached under the desk, gently grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, and pulled her out. She was a limp noodle. I picked her up and held her close to my chest. She started purring and looking around. Outside, some dogs started barking. Her eyes got big and she buried her head in my neck under my chin.

I instantly fell in love.

"You're coming home with me. I will keep you safe and love you forever." She didn't put up a fight.

I opened the door and made eye contact with Laura. She rushed over and I told her I wanted to adopt Charlotte. After about 15 minutes of filling out paperwork, Laura started talking with me while looking at the adoption forms. She read that my last two cats had died at the ripe old ages of 14 and 15. And she read the reason I wanted to adopt again: to have another little soul in the house. She almost started crying. "Charlotte is going to a wonderful home!"

Charlotte and I headed back to our house, but not before stopping at Pet Smart for supplies. I left her in the car while I ran in to get a litter box, litter, food, dishes and a few toys. By this time, the storm had passed and the sun was out. It was a beautiful start to our new life together.

We lived quietly for ten months. Charlotte was an only child. I had friends over occasionally, and she was very shy. She rarely came out if other people were around. I kept her indoors to keep her safe. She had plenty of toys to keep her busy. I especially liked the way she sat on the couch.

Then I met Bruce. He came over to my house for the first time after dinner one night and as we sat on the couch talking, out came little Miss Charlotte from the bedroom. I was shocked. She marched right over and hopped onto Bruce's lap. He started petting her and she settled right in. For anyone who knows our story, Bruce and I pretty much fell in love at first sight. But this was the clincher. Charlotte was giving him the paws up!

Bruce moved in shortly thereafter and so there were three of us. Six months later, we rescued a teeny little feral kitten and named him Rumi.

Charlotte immediately took to her role as adoptive mother. She groomed him, showed him how to play, and made sure he knew who was boss by running over him and making him roll. They entertained us daily.

Soon, Rumi grew to be as big as Charlotte.

And then he became a hunk. A chunk. A hunkachunk.

He didn't necessarily appreciate the cat baths Charlotte tried to give him at that point. Her little boy was all grown up!

After that, our fur family grew by leaps and bounds. First came our dog, Bella, then another cat, Mabel.

Then we adopted our second dog, Cody, before little Scout came along to join the clan. Charlotte was no longer an only child, and our quiet little condo was now a bustling lair full of fur and barks and meows and humans. And through it all, she remained calm and sweet and tolerant and accommodating and graceful. Princess Charlotte.

When we moved up here to Northern Idaho in 2012, she was the first cat out of the carrier to explore our new home. It didn't take her long to get comfortable and pick out several favorite nap spots.

She had a short-lived modeling career, helping me try to market my cat scarves.

She liked to keep in shape and exercised often. She would race back and forth on the second floor, which is about 50 feet long. We would hear her give a little warning to anyone who might be in the way "Mrrrrrp!" and then off she would go. We'd hear her little paws galloping from one end of the loft to the other. She wanted to make sure she could outrun our youngest cat, Scout, who took great joy in attacking Charlotte whenever the opportunity arose.

This should be the picture in the dictionary next to the word "catawampus":

And one of my favorites: the high dive pose. What great form!

Toward the end of her long life, she developed thyroid issues, arthritis, and kidney problems. She lost quite a bit of weight. She slowed way down, and sometimes had trouble walking. But she never lost her appetite, and she continued going up and down the stairs several times a day.

She reminded me of a skinny little old lady in a housecoat running to catch the bus. :-)

One of her favorite spots in her senior years was in front of the wood stove. She would just lay there and roast all day and all night.

Last summer, she really started getting weak and her arthritis was making her very wobbly. She would sometimes stumble and lose her footing, and we were afraid she would fall on the stairs. We made a little apartment for her in our master bathroom and put her in there at night and when we left the house.

She also spent quite a bit of time on my lap, dreaming of days gone by when she could run and play and explore.

One of my previous blog posts was about Charlotte's Big Adventure in our front yard last spring. This is my favorite photo from that day:

I just love the look on her face! She seems to be saying "I still got it!"

I just love that cat. She was such a blessing to us. Always poised and graceful, practical and gracious, funny and wise. We will miss having this little soul in our house. God had a plan, indeed.