When we moved to Hawaii we knew we'd need to find a new home for Anners, our cat of 14 years... She was such a good girl. The kids all loved her. Especially Kaiah, who she slept with every night, and Cambria, who she snuggled with on a blanket in front of the heater every morning. Ok I loved her too. And totally miss her sleeping in my armpits at night after snuggling with Kaiah. Anyway, we were thilled when my friends Molly said her mom was a cat lady who was looking to add another feline to her household. I knew Anners wouldn't be thrilled about another cat, but I was happy to have a save place for her to be. When we went to Ann's house to drop off Anners (isn't that funny they have the same name?!), she had made this sign. Sweet!
What a wonderful woman! And my wonderful friend Molly :)
We dropped off Anners and she immediately ran upstairs, hid under a bed and wouldn't come out for a few days. This was so sad to watch, but we went down the stairs, trying to hold it together. It didn't work. We could hardly speak we were crying so hard. All of us. It was super awkward, but we couldn't do anything about it. I hugged Ann, told her how thankful we were that she was caring for our girl, and left, barely able to see through the tears. That was so hard.
I don't know if it was our parting reaction or just that Ann is a super fun cat lady, but we began to receive "letters" from our cat on a regular basis... She sent us pics showing us that she started to eat again (and out of the homemade pottery bowl we made no less!) And she told us that Anners got wet food and milk every day. Oh my word. We never treated her that good. Only Friskies at our house.
The letters were very fun. Cambria cried herself to sleep most nights those first few months in Hawaii because she missed Anners so much. It was heartbreaking. When we went back to Oregon to visit that first summer we made it a priority to go visit Anners. She stayed under the bed and refused to make eye contact. She looked mad. Ouch. Still I know we made the right decision. She was 14 and the quarantine period would most likely have done her in.
Though we were much more in control of our emotions after the first few months, the letters kept coming! We looked forward to these so much!
Oh my goodness. The costumes! Hilarious.
She sent about 8-10 emails and letters in all, giving seasonal updates and keeping us laughing.
She signed it with her paw! hahaahhha!
We were given permission from our landlords to get two kittens and that brought so much joy to the kids... The letters were fewer and further between and eventually we got this one last card. It was a note informing us that Anners had died.
This was our response to her:
Hi!
We got your letter. Can I just say that the kids and I can't believe we
found such a wonderful person to care for Annie. I mean... it would
have been great to just have had a safe and warm place for her where she
was fed regularly. But you totally went above and beyond! I'm so glad
you seem to have loved her as much (if not MORE!) than we did :)
We are still really glad we didn't bring her here, especially knowing that she had two more years of life.
The
new kitties are really fun and definitely have their own personalities,
but they do NOT snuggle as much as Anners did. Maybe it's because they
are kittens and it's hot here... but we definitely missed that about
her.
Molly
said you were sad and sad for us and I just think you're a precious
gift from God. You blessed our family so MUCH with all those fun letters
and pictures and of course for caring for Anners so well.
Thank you.
Ann went above and beyond to make our hurt less and in the end she had
grown to love her as much as we had. She buried Anners in her favorite
sleeping spot (sweet!) and said she missed her so much. I
love Ann and Anners and this whole story of how we came to share a cat
:)
