Floh

I'm not sure if I have ever written a post about my cat, Floh before.

Floh is the offspring of my old cat Sheba. When I was probably 12 I wanted a persian cat, so my mom took me to a breeder that had some slightly older kittens for a decent price. But I saw this long haired cream calico in a cage. They told us that she had lived in a single room, and was very shy. I knew I had to have that cat. I took her home and she didn't leave my bedroom for about 6 months. Then she slowly joined the world but was always shy.

We didn't get her fixed because she didn't go into heat for a number of years, and then she was an indoor/outdoor cat. She was hit by a car at one point and had very few teeth left in her mouth by the time she had the litter Floh came from.

Floh was born on my sister's 12th birthday (or was it 13th?) in 2000. Floh was not the kitten I wanted out of that litter, but she ended up becoming my surrogate "baby" while I was pregnant with Rhayn. My dad told me that she looked like a burn victim. She was not a cute kitten, hence the name "Floh" which means flea (as in the bug) in German. Sheba never weaned her, and I have a picture somewhere of Floh nursing from Sheba when she was almost the same size as her mom. The night I went into labor with Rhayn, both Floh and Sheba were sitting in my lap while I had contractions, calming and soothing me.

When I brought Rhayn home,, Floh would sit on the bed with me and gently clean Rhayn's tiny baby head. She was Rhayn's cat as well as mine. Though over the years she will sleep on the bed with both of us, lately she has been sleeping as close to me as I will let her. We have no idea when Sheba passed on. She was an old cat when she had Floh. A year or so after we had last seen Sheba, my dad and brother found her skeleton complete with collar under the house. She was a well loved cat.

This year Floh will turn 11 on March 7th, the day after my eldest child turns 10. How time flies.