Devoted

January 26, 2009

Although I have a significant  network of Facebook friends encompassing a lifetime of shared relationships and acquaintances, I still spend a large amount of time alone by myself with Tippi, my feline friend.

February 19, 2009

Mine, Don't Touch
February 19, 2009 at 7:00pm


I posted the following on a craigslist pet forum expecting sympathetic cat owners to rally by me and take my side with the issue.



Touch not the cat < BFFTippi > 02/19 15:33:51


I agree with a statement I read in the Cat Whisperer that anyone other than the owner shall not groom or brush the cat because it compromises the level of intimacy the owner has established with the cat. I have a friend who tries to brush the cat while petting it profusely and claiming great strides in the amount of affection the cat purportedly gives him. It irks my last nerve and I have forbidden him from brushing or feeding the cat because these tasks should be reserved for the owner. They are special intimate actions that supersede the casual petting of strangers. He argues with me but I hold steadfast.
Am I being overly dramatic or is their value to what I am feeling?

These are the answers I received in response

Wiggelsmom said: "Mine, ...don't touch! "

Petlover 327 said: "sounds like this "cat whisperer" is as dumb as the dog one"

Mom4threepaws said "sounds dramatic and bossy to me"

and Arctidog thought I was kidding----
"Some cats are quite open to loving the whole < family and any member of the family in my opinion can feed and brush the cat, some cats have more open and affectionate personalities than others. my oldest loves everyone and even purrs and wants pets from her vet, she is just loving, so I find it odd that grooming is being looked at so personally.Unless you are kidding????
I bath my moms cat for her and he still loves her more than me as it should be. It doesn't put me up a notch in his book"

All in all it wasn't exactly the response I thought it would garner. I was bitterly surprised and actually quite angry that so many people thought I was just being my spoiled brat, snivelling, only child self. Yes, being raised an only child has caused me to appreciate my possessions and hold on to my own toys since so many kids were always trying to take advantage of them. I had always had the best clothes, the best toys, the most favorite pet. I wasn't about to let the ruffian I had harbored in my bedroom start to appease himself to my cat. I've seen what happens in that regard. One day, my cat will forget who I am and up and run away with this fickle flaky suitor. Just because he plays with her while I am busing typing, he acts like I neglect her. She is all I have and I refuse to let some ratfuck come in and take my place as parent of my baby kitty.



Jennifer Curren This kitty-affection thief is your FRIEND?!

Your kitty is YOUR child, and others should respect your rights and decisions as a parent....
February 19, 2009 at 9:34pm · Like


Michael Thomas Angelo no, he's not a friend. . He 's trade that I should have kicked to the curb last week.
February 19, 2009 at 11:50pm · Like












March 4, 2009
This is my little baby Tippi doing what she loves to do. No box or bag or suitcase is safe from this little feline. She hides and scopes out the world from safety.

April 2, 2009-- That means I wrote this the week of Tippi's 4th birthday.

As everyone who knows me knows, I love my cat Tippi more than I care about myself. I worry myself into fretful fits over her well-being and degree of happiness. There is nothing I want more than to make Tippi the most comfortable and secure and healthy in all that she does to continue to be the most special little bundle of fur and spunky attitude that this world has ever seen.
That is why I have long felt awkward about the type of diet I have been feeding Tippi. Like most American cats who are succumb to the whims of their owners, Tippi is dependent on me for everything. A box of a popular commercial brand of Indoor Formula cat food has been the mainstay of her diet for a spell of time. Something about the lack of variety and boring factor coupled with the high carbohydrate and dry texture just doesn't sit well with me. That would be like me being expected to eat a bowl of Grape Nuts every day for the rest of my life. Or McDonalds fries which although tasty are no more better for me than a bag of potato chips. Am I feeding Tippi the equivalent to a high carb, high grain bowl of junk?

I began to think about where kittens come from. Their ancestral big jungle counterpart came from the land. The apple can't be that far from the tree. Tippi is half human and half wild cat in a little lithe body. She wasn't born in a test-tube or cloned from an artificial hybrid of genes. A couple generations ago, she was stalking the wild for her next meal. She is a born hunter. I can see it from the way she stalks her sources of prey around my apartment. Since we have lived in my current apartment, she has caught two mice and laid both of them on my keyboard as gifts. She knows the best place she can find me. She the genes of Artemis the Huntress in her belly claws but being a contemporary princess in captivity has made her used to the more refined things in life. That is why I am going to take the leap and order her food from the most holistic website I can find. Another member of my online cat care group recommended it. Called Feline' s Pride, the product seems to be made up of the best raw chicken cats can eat. It is shipped frozen in 5 lb boxes and thawed according to use. The site recommends transitioning the cats in to the new raw diet lest they completely reject it. Tippi has rejected more than one brand of better cat food that I have put in front of her. I have tried to eschew popular junk brands from the start of her kittenhood, opting instead to go with a more expensive and therefore better brand based on it's holistic makeup. I am not a fool to believe that the biggest pricetag begets the best quality but I do know that the cheapest box of dry food I can find at my corner store is called Alley Cat which is also the least nutritious and worst tasting of the genre. Hmm, food for thought. I am nervous about taking the leap to this new frontier in food. It may be an expensive mistake if it fails, but I cannot sleep at night knowing that I may be depriving Tippi of the best most optimal nutrition possible for her species. She is all I have and why wouldn't I want to do what's best for her? Especially since I fail to do right by self more often than not. Sometimes I can't stomach myself. Tippi is the most important reason I am alive. Without her, I would have given up along time ago.





-30-


September 22, 2015

It's only been two months since the unthinkable happened. Two months since I was forced to put myTippi down. Two months since I endured the worst, most emotionally crippling and devastating event of my life. Reading my hypervigilant, hysterical obsessions over Tippi's diet is especially troubling in light of what happened. My baby died of colon cancer despite my painstaking efforts to provide her with the most holistic diet possible.