Let's talk about Stella

Yes I said Cats-suh. We do have two. I just never talk about Stella because, well, frankly she's a mess. She is 12 years old and has several health problems that are as listed:

• Asthma


• Obesity


• Deafness


• Diabetes


• Chronic Untreatable Bilateral Eye Infections


• Arthritis

We do love her though. She has been with us for many years and thru many moves and life events. She is a funny cat, not a big thinker though. Not a lap cat. She is one of those big, tumbly, grumpy cats that is always near but never too close. I am thinking about her today because it was time for her bi-monthly bath. I forgot to mention above that she is so fat that she can not clean herself anywhere beyond her front arms so she needs a good dousing every now and then. I will say though that it is usually such a big production that all of the planets have to be aligned just right. She can't be too wheezy, or too grumpy and I always ask myself " Is she really that dirty?" -today she was. So I go out on the porch and bring her in. She got so mad when I put her in the water that she proceeded to pee all over! It's a good thing that my tub is a tall one or I would have bee re-scrubbing the floor as well as the tub afterwards but I got off lucky that time. I had to drain the water and run a whole new bath before I could get started. She is so furry that I almost have to completely submerse her before she actually gets wet. For the entire 30 minutes, she just stood there, quaking with righteous anger and howling at the top of her lungs. (There is a good side to her being fat and asthmatic- she doesn't nearly rip my flesh off of my arms in the bath anymore.) Afterwards she creeps about and cast looks of derision my way as if to say " Great, now I stink".

So even though we love her , she's like the family ghoul. She has stains and goop about her eyes (yes after hundreds of dollars and every old timey or new agey , hippy treatment I can think of and try- her eyes remain infected and miserable), her backend is always messy, she wheezes, she limps, she has to have a huge litter box, she is white but normally is the white of a dirty sweatsock, she gets cat acne. Every time though that we a start to think maybe it's time to let the old girl go, I will find her out in the yard chasing a bug or watching the sky or she will manage to get up on my lap for a rare cuddle. So we keep her around. And I mean around. She is huge and lazy- she lays down to drink her water for Heaven's Sake!

The picture is Stella hunched over her food bowl, replenishing the energy that she expended standing in one spot and howling for a half an hour. Is that an accusation I see in her eyes? Yes folks, this is Stella on a GOOD day- see why she is our Flower in the Attic?