Bluebell – June 1995 – September 2014

While we were on our Fall Tour Vacation we lost an old and dear friend who had given us so much joy and companionship for almost 20 years.

About a week after we had left home our house sitter called to tell us that our dear Bluebell had passed away quietly in her sleep.  Normally Bluebell was 1st up in the morning to have her morning dish of food, milk and her insulin blood test. If we were a bit slow getting up, or tried to sleep in she would let everyone know it was time to get up and get busy!  On this morning, she was not up and so our house sitter, Sue, went into our bedroom and found her in her bed with Red laying beside her.

Bluebell and her litter mate Rosebud entered our life one afternoon in the fall of 1995.  Susie Davis, who I worked with at Motorola had through some very unfortunate circumstances had the responsibility to find homes for the animals that had belonged to a couple that she and Jeff were friends with, and who unfortunately had both died.  They had a small ranch with horses and other farm type animals including two litters of very young kittens, that were living in the barn. After some encouragement from Michelle, I had instructions to go over to Susie’s home after work and pick out a female kitten.  I first spotted this little black kitten who had just barely had her eyes open, then I noticed two black and white tuxedo kittens in the other box. One male and one female, brother and sister. They were maybe a week older than the little black one, apparently they had different moms.  I could not decide which of the two girls to choose, I loved them both as soon as I had picked them up, so I took them both, knowing that Michelle would be good with the decision.

After getting both of the girls to the vet for shots and a check up we introduced them to our other two cats, Baja and Stretch, our dogs Rags and Samantha, Joe our Mourning Dove and my parrot Lolita.  Baja immediately took over caring for the kittens and soon we were all getting along well.  We named the girls Rosebud and Bluebell.

Later in the year it came to pass that I had been assigned to move to Munich Germany to open a R&D lab at the Motorola office on the eastern edge of the city. Rather than take an apartment in town, we decided that we would prefer living in one of the smaller towns, Forstinning about 25km from the office just off the autobahn. Why I bring this up it that the house we rented had a full basement,  main floor and a second floor with a stairway connecting all three, unfortunately, there was an open stair well formed by the dry walled railing wall that went from the basement up to the second floor. Of course none of our animals had ever lived in a home with stairs…

When the animal transport company arrived with Samantha, unfortunately Rags our oldest dog had been diagnosed with cancer a few months before our leave date and didn’t make the trip with us, and the four cats; Joe the dove had traveled with us on the airplane in his small cage, and Lolita had to stay in the USA since she was considered to be an exotic bird and therefore was not allowed to move to Germany. Joe was considered to be poultry and was allowed into the country.  We of course never told him that he was considered to be a chicken…

Anyway, we got Samantha out of her carrier 1st since she was the largest and really needed to visit the backyard. We then let Baja, Stretch and Rosebud out without a problem, the each walked out of their carrier as the door was opened and began being the usual nosy cats that they were.

Not so much with Bluebell… when I opened her cage, which was in our entryway, she made a beeline out of her carrier at full speed, which was pretty darn fast, she spotted the stairs and ran up to the second floor landing and without looking jumped  over the railing wall and fell all the way down to the basement. Michelle and I witnessed the whole thing and we both assumed that she must have at the least broken a leg or two.  I ran down the stairs but could not find her in the stair well nor in the family room that was down there. She had run into one of the downstairs bedrooms and was hiding in one of the closets. I picked her up and held her until she settled down, then carried her upstairs, where we closely examined her and found nothing broken nor damaged. I set her down and she ran over to Baja who checked her over as well. The rest of the day the four of them spent exploring the rest of the house.  Samantha took a nap in the sunshine.

During our stay in Germany we lost our dear little Baja to feline leukemia and Samantha who had a canine version of Osteoporosis that we had been battling all of her life had her hip joint break at the ball at the age of 13, which was not operable.  After the loss of both of our older females, Bluebell assumed the alpha female role in our little family and proceeded to nurture and instruct any and all of the new kittens that joined our home.

When we returned back to the states, I was assigned to a position in Austin TX, where a little cream colored male kitten joined our home, Bluebell immediately took charge of the baby and taught him all the basics; unfortunately, Bailey was a handful, even for Bluebell.

Bluebell gave it her best trying to care for Bailey as did all of our other cats, but he was a very independent cuss – typical Texan that wanted to have everything his way and if he didn’t get it, you would know about it. Michelle took over most of the Bailey care and love.  During our sojourn in Austin we lost our beloved Stretch to throat cancer at the ripe old age of 22. At 22 he was still very active and interactive with the rest of us. For a cat that just wandered in one day off the street he was a joy to have in our family.

It was during our time in Austin that Bluebell developed an interesting behavior.  Whenever I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, she would jump up on the sink counter and demand that I floss her teeth after I had finished doing mine, many years later, after she came down with arthritis and was too lame to jump up on the counter, she would yell at me to pick her up and do her teeth morning and night.

When I retired our little band moved from Austin TX to our current home here in Show Low, AZ.  We moved here in April of 2002 and in June, on my birthday we were evacuated because of the Rodeo – Chediski wild fire that burned over 500,000 acres of forest land near our home.  Bluebell, Rosie, Bailey, Joe and I, oh and Michelle too!, went down to Scottsdale to stay with our friends Paul and Judy; actually they were just leaving on vacation so we house sat until the fire was under control and we could come home.

Shortly after coming home we noticed that we had a stray cat living on our back porch, Miss Kitty had found our home after, or maybe during the fire and made herself to home.  Later that year, Miss Kitty found Rascal and brought him to our back porch so we could feed him. We were able to catch both of them fairly easily and brought them into the house after taking them to the vet for a check up etc.  Bluebell and Miss Kitty had some discussion as to who would be the alpha female for our clan and I guess that Bluebell won the discussion, since after having a few initial words they seemed to form not a friendship but at least a close working relationship. Bluebell immediately took charge of Rascal, who unlike Bailey loved all of the attention that he got from her and from Rosebud as well.

Sometime after we moved to Show Low, I decided to at least try and eat healthier and exercise more.  As part of the regimen, I began to eat oatmeal every morning after going to gym. When I would finish my oatmeal, Bluebell would sit in front of my chair and yell at me until I gave her the bowl with the remaining milk to finish. At some point like many animals she became lactose intolerant, so we began buying lactose free milk for her to have in the morning while I had my oatmeal. It seems like she was always finding ways to make sure that she got special attention from us.

In late 2008 our dear Rosie developed kidney failure and we lost her after 13 wonderful years of great companionship.  Rosie was never as demanding nor quite as playful and busy as Bluebell, but she knew how to make her humans very happy by spending quality time in their laps every night!  When Rosie started down hill we noticed that she was spend a lot of time on the couch and the other cats, especially Bluebell would lay next to her and groom her and mainly spend a lot of time with her.  Bluebell and Rosie had grown up together and had spent a lot of time with one another.

Not too long after we lost Rosie we lost our Bailey in 2009 as well to kidney problems complicated by diabetes, unlike Rosie, Bailey’s issues came on rather suddenly but once again Bluebell was in attendance to comfort and groom him during the short time that he had left.

A few months after we lost Bailey the two outside cats that had taken up residence on our back porch had a litter of two black kittens a male who we gave to our good friends and neighbors Mary & Art  Katz-Bans.  The little female kitten looked so much like Rosie we felt that it was providence that she was brought to us.  Once again, Bluebell assumed her Nanny role and took charge of Maggie Mae.  Within a week, a tri color female cat we had never seen before showed on our front porch up one evening with a little reddish brown and white kitten.

The tri color was gone the next day and the little kitten had made himself to home on the back porch.  This was around the time that Michelle and I had decided to try and catch the mom and dad cats to have them neutered so that we would not have any more kittens to handle. The first one we trapped of course was the little kitten who we immediately took to the vet for a check up and shots plus neutering. The kitten was a male with a very very easy going disposition who loved attention and he would make me laugh with some of his antics and expressions, so we named him Red for Red Skelton.

Bluebell had her paws full with these two, I think that they kept her, Michelle and I so busy and entertained that it helped us deal with the loss of our dear Rosie and Bailey.

In 2011 we noticed a change in Bluebell’s behavior, she was becoming lethargic and seemed to be losing interest in things that she normally was very involved with.  I recalled that both Rosie and Bailey early on with their kidney problems were showing these signs as well. Michelle had noticed the same thing and we recalled that the vet had told us that if we had gotten Rosie to him earlier that he might have been able to help slow down or stop the problem. Needless to say, Michelle and Bluebell were at the vet the next day. She was diagnosed with early kidney failure and the vet gave us some medicine to add to her food every day that might help save her. After a short time we noticed that she was drinking a lot of water everyday and going to the cat box a lot as well. A follow up exam showed that her kidneys had improved greatly and that she was out of danger. Finally a win!

In 2012 we again noticed a change in her activity level and interest, back to the vet, this time she was diagnosed with feline diabetes which is pretty much like type II diabetes in humans, namely it can be kept under control with insulin monitoring and shots which we instituted. Once again she was back to her old self and taking care of her kittens, especially Red who really adored her.  Red would lay by her almost all the time and sleep with her at night, never far from her side.

In October 2012  Bluebell took a page out of Bailey’s book and went on a road trip with us to Las Vegas where we met up with some of my old drag racing friends for a reunion at the NHRA races. Whereas Bailey actually liked riding in the car, it had never been one of Bluebell’s favorite things to do.  She was a pretty much stay at home with her kids kinda girl. Every bump or tar strip in the road would cause her to complain loudly, and of course we had to travel down I40 for most of the trip. By the time we got to Kingman, she was ready to give Governor Jan Brewer what for, for the bad road conditions!

Earlier this year her arthritis began getting worse and she began moving slowly and it took her a lot of effort to get up on the couch or bed.  Michelle’s sister had a dog with similar problems and her vet had recommended an over the counter med for dogs and cats that had the same effect as glucosamine and chondroitin has on human joint pain, lo and behold it worked! While it didn’t eliminate the problem, it really did allow her to move freely again and once again she was back to much of her old self.

I am not sure what the correlation is between cat years and human years, but I think it is somewhere around 5 to 1 or so.  So to my way of thinking, in human years Bluebell made it to a ripe old age of 100 and other than the normal old age aches and pains,  hearing loss and bad eye sight that we all get as we age she had a decent quality of life and passed peacefully in her sleep with Red who was her favorite, laying next to her and comforting her.

When Michelle and I got word of her passing while on our trip, we decided not to say anything to any of our friends or to even talk about it between us.  Given how she was and how much she cared and loved both Michelle and I, we felt that she would have wanted us to go on and save the goodbyes and letting go until we got back home.  Before we leave on any extended trip, we both spend time with each of our kids and hold them and tell them we love them because you just never know that it maybe the last time that you will see them.

I have to say that it is hard for me to brush my teeth or have my oatmeal in the morning or to do our 10:00 o’clock cat bedtime snacks without having a tear or two well up, but then I smile and remember all of the fun we had together for so many years…

Poor Red still doesn’t understand where Bluebell went.  When we walked in the house he was sleeping in her bed, he awoke and went running around the house looking for her, thinking that we had brought her back home.  Sometimes during the night he wanders the house softly mewing looking for her … as the weeks go by we all adjust and deal with our grief at loosing a loved one. After all these years, I understand the process, I can deal with it, but …

Thank You for 20 Wonderful Years!