My Furry Valentine

My Furry Valentine by Barbara Singer

I had a great Valentine’s Day this year. My husband and I walked to a romantic restaurant in SoHo and had a lovely dinner followed by some serious cuddling on my couch. Of course, my husband was in the bedroom. I was curled up with my cat Snow. I would like to make it clear that her lame name is not my fault. She’s a white kitty that I rescued from a cage by the cash registers at the Petco in Kips Bay. She was already named Snow, and although I could have re-named her, it seemed insulting to just disregard her former life and pretend she didn’t exist until she entered my apartment.

When I first saw her in the cage at the pet store she had a wandering eye, short fur, and what appeared to be a pretty bad attitude. Still, I was intrigued. It was a crowded Saturday; lots of folks were in front of the cages in what amounts to a casting session for the part of beloved pet. Snow began to have a cat version of a nervous breakdown. She was freaking out; her wandering eye looking to her left while the rest of her looked forward at the loud, fawning throng of well meaning cat lovers. She looked like she could have used a valium. Still, I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

I went back to the pet store during the week when I knew it wouldn’t be as busy, there were less people in the store and Snow was much calmer. She even rubbed up against my fingers when I stuck them inside her cage. I went home and proceeded to talk my husband into adopting another cat. Now this was not easy. My husband had already unwillingly taken custody of a neurotic tabby from his previous marriage. I made the case that I had a cat when he met me and therefore my cat loving tendencies had already been disclosed. We had lost both kitties to old age over the past couple of years and I was ready to take home another furry bundle of joy. My husband reluctantly gave in, but not without much bitching that continued for the next few years.

According to the woman who was fostering her, Snow had a back story worthy of a Lifetime movie. Before she did time in the Petco cage, she was taken from a crazy homeless person who was living on the street in Harlem. I was told that he was none too happy to have his pet taken away. They rescued Snow at 6AM. (Apparently, covert cat-napping takes place very early in the morning.) After they put her in the car and started to drive away, this homeless guy ran after them, screaming and chasing the car down the street. They also said that while she lived on the street she gave birth to kittens that were eaten by a pit-bull. She was pregnant again when they saved her. If Dr. Phil had a Dr. Phil House for troubled cats she would have been the first resident.

Once the kittens were old enough, her foster mother brought Snow and her litter to Petco so they could all be adopted. Of course, the cute little kittens went right away. Snow languished in that cage for 3 months, hence, the weird eye and the bad attitude. Still something about her just made me decide that she belonged with me and my family (it may have been the bad attitude).

As I mentioned before, our cats had both passed away and we hadn’t had a pet for a while. I was really happy to bring another furry critter home to the family. I expected Snow to have a period of adjustment, and I thought it might be a while, given the horrible things she had been through. I thought she’d probably hide under the bed for a few days, only coming out to eat. Surprisingly, she hid for about 20 minutes, then walked into the living room and looked at me as if to say, “Well, what do we do now?” Even more surprising, within a couple of days, she was curling up on my lap! I’ve had a lot of cats over the years, but few were that comfortable with jumping up and plopping right down on top of me. It got even better, it turns out Snow must have some kind of pedigree in her past, her fur grew! She has beautiful, long, soft, fluffy, white fur; I’m a sucker for long-haired cats. They’re beautiful; it almost makes up for the buckets of fur that I brush off of every surface in my house.

Up until now, I had cats that doled out affection sparingly. I always had cats that would cuddle up next to me, my cat Baby liked to “hold hands,” (I would hold her paw or she would put her paw on top of my hand). But until Snow, I never had a cat that loved to be snuggled and kissed! Usually if you hug a cat, you can feel their their heartbeat starting to race after a few seconds, then they squirm out of your arms and run away. Snow’s heartbeat actually seems to slow down when you hug her, and she even purrs sighs of contentment! She’ll also let me kiss her until I can’t kiss her anymore, literally. She even won over my husband, Mister “no more pets ever again!“

I’m so glad she’s affectionate, because she doesn’t do anything else. Her time in the cage made her lethargic and as soon as we got her home she started to gain weight, a lot of weight! We were warned that this would probably happen. I’m used to having cats that self-regulate their food intake. Snow just couldn’t get enough of that sweet kibble stuff. The first day we had her she dove head first into her bowl and didn’t come back up until that bowl was empty, and then she cried for more. Apparently, kitties eat their feelings too. We brought her to the vet who looked at us like we were horrible people that didn’t love their cat enough to stop her from binge eating. At least she wasn’t sticking her paw down her throat, she’s a full figured feline and she likes it that way!

As much as everyone loves a fat cat, we did carefully monitor how much food we were giving her. An action met with palpable disdain on her part. She did take off some pounds, finally, she could reach around to groom herself and not roll away. I still would like her to lose some more weight. The veterinarian told me to that she should exercise, easier said than done. Have you ever tried to convince a cat to exercise? If she joins a gym she’ll never go! I’ve tried everything, laser pointers (she just stares at them), fuzzy toy mouse on a string (I get more of a workout jumping up and down and swinging it around, trying to make it look like real prey), I even tried catnip, but she just gets stoned and that makes her hungry (God, I miss college).

Despite her chubby figure and lack of motivation (who can’t relate to that?), we love Snow. She’s a very sweet cat who makes our home just a little warmer, a little cozier, and a lot furrier!