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Velcro May 9, 2003 - Jan 9, 2020
Posted By: reh321, 01-10-2020, 04:03 PM

On May 9, 2003, 'Charlotte' - a "callico" cat that lived with a friend of ours - gave birth to two kittens fathered by a gray&white cat named 'Gray Boy' that lived at the same address in Marion IN. In the next few days she apparently lay on one of the kittens; anyway, the woman who also lived at that address found one kitten dead in the morning. That woman was moving to the country, and we helped her move three weeks later. Every time I sat down, Charlotte was in my lap, perhaps offering the remaining kitten for adoption, but she needn't have bothered - the lady and our younger daughter decided that the kitten should go with us .... we were already moving in July to the middle of nowhere, Kansas, taking our two daughters {entering 7th grade and entering 11th grade} with us, and our daughters thought the kitten would be good reparations for this.
We named the kitten "Velcro', because she never was very good at controlling her claws. I have spent today putting together a series of picture, one for each year in Velcro's life, for my family. During that time, we made the move to Kansas, then three years later we moved to Western Massachusetts, then six years later we moved back to Indiana.

Velcro always appeared to be a little afraid of life in general, but she coped. In recent years she slept more than she was awake, but we coped with that. Last Spring she started losing weight badly; the vet discovered that Velcro had a growth on her thyroid, so I started rubbing the insides of her ears twice a day with a topical medicine; Velcro didn't like that at first, but she coped, and recently even purred as I did it. Perhaps the thyroid issue was a sign of a deeper cancer; in any case, Velcro became weaker and weaker, and yesterday she died. We will miss her.

Incidentally, also appearing in these photos are tortie 'Magic' 2004-2011 and black Leila 2011-?.

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Last edited by reh321; 01-10-2020 at 04:16 PM.
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01-10-2020, 04:14 PM - 3 Likes   #2
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As I mentioned in the previous post, in 2013 we moved back to Indiana. Here are the pictures from then.

The last three pictures are particularly poignant right now:

1. Our younger daughter always called her "Velcro Moo". Velcro often slept next to this hanging my mother made in 1976 - perhaps to show that she was different from the cow on it.

2. My wife put this chair in the kitchen to hold her purse. When Velcro started napping on the edge, I suggested that she hang the purse from the chair so Velcro would have more room for napping.

3. Recently, when my wife made our bed, she put the 'situp' pillows down from the sleeping pillows so Velcro would have a place of relative peace there.
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Last edited by reh321; 01-10-2020 at 05:34 PM.
01-10-2020, 07:43 PM   #3
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My condolences. Thank you for sharing these pictures and the story of Velcro, I enjoyed them very much. It's a wonderful idea to create a collection of images like this. As the owner of a cat who's now in his "senior years" I will keep this in mind for the inevitable time when the pictures I've taken over the years are all we have left.
01-10-2020, 08:59 PM   #4
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I’m so sorry for your loss! This is a beautiful remembrance of your sweet Velcro.

01-10-2020, 09:03 PM - 1 Like   #5
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So very sorry for your loss. Such small creatures, but they become such a big part of our lives. We lost our 13 year old Sheltie, Noah, two days ago. I understand what you are feeling right now.
01-10-2020, 09:28 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by ashurbanipal Quote
My condolences. Thank you for sharing these pictures and the story of Velcro, I enjoyed them very much. It's a wonderful idea to create a collection of images like this. As the owner of a cat who's now in his "senior years" I will keep this in mind for the inevitable time when the pictures I've taken over the years are all we have left.
Thank you for your condolences.

I really thought this task was going to be trivial. since I classify photographs as I take them, I thought "all I have to do is to take a representative photo from each year" - but then I realized "Velcro" photographs were spread across several places {I have one folder for home, one folder - separate from 'home' - for the felines, etc}, and, by deciding to take one for each year I had to make sure that certain iconic poses {such as Velcro lying next to the 'cow' on the hanging, and her lying on that red tree 'skirt' which she loved so much} did show up. Anyway, it was a bigger chore than I had expected, but I did want to finish it today so I could put it up on the cloud and send links to our daughters who are now living independently. But it got done!
01-10-2020, 09:29 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by Deesquared Quote
I’m so sorry for your loss! This is a beautiful remembrance of your sweet Velcro.
Thank you for your condolences - and for your complimentary words.

01-10-2020, 09:30 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by grog85361 Quote
So very sorry for your loss. Such small creatures, but they become such a big part of our lives. We lost our 13 year old Sheltie, Noah, two days ago. I understand what you are feeling right now.
Thank you for your condolences - and I hope your thoughts boomerang right back to you.

It is amazingly she photographed so well. All black Leila doesn't photograph nearly as well. You would never know from my photographs that she was largely a 'bag of bones' in the last two, for example.
01-11-2020, 10:42 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by grog85361 Quote
So very sorry for your loss. Such small creatures, but they become such a big part of our lives. We lost our 13 year old Sheltie, Noah, two days ago. I understand what you are feeling right now.
I was thinking about cats last night. Magic (the tortie in photo 3 of the first collection} came to be with us in August 2004; I believe she was taken from her mother too soon, because Velcro had to teach her to be "a cat" - things like grooming herself. Eventually she learned her lessons so well that she often woke me up at 2:30 {work day to follow, of course) to groom my beard; the last time must have been in May 2011. After finding little piles of vomit around the house in July, we traced them to Magic, and took her to the vet in August. Following several months of treatment, Magic died in mid October; I remember saying once, "all I want is to be awaken by Magic's licking my beard" - but of course I never was. We already had some traveling planned for Thanksgiving, so we put off getting another cat until our return. My wife's intention was to find another cat that liked me, and black Leila adopted me. She doesn't lick my beard, but she often sits in my lap and demands affection. The only time I can remember having Velcro in my lap was just after Magic died - it was as through she was saying, "I have looked everywhere, and I cannot find Magic". The last two nights I have heard Leila quietly meowing around the house - I think she is still looking for Velcro. Meanwhile, I have to admit that I seldom think of my buddy Magic - when I do think of her, I feel guilty for not thinking more of her, but now I have my buddy Leila. I hope that in a few years I will seldom think of Velcro anymore - but this is not the time yet.
01-12-2020, 08:19 PM   #10
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I am sorry for your loss. Thanks for posting and sharing the stories. We had quite a bunch of cats (not all at the same time, but always two) at the family house since we used to adopt them, all with leukemia, since they usually get rejected for having the virus and are the ones who need love the most.
I'm sure your cats had a wonderful life, and it's never easy to say goodbye be it if they leave from old age, or earlier.
01-13-2020, 09:34 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by torashi Quote
I am sorry for your loss. Thanks for posting and sharing the stories. We had quite a bunch of cats (not all at the same time, but always two) at the family house since we used to adopt them, all with leukemia, since they usually get rejected for having the virus and are the ones who need love the most.
I'm sure your cats had a wonderful life, and it's never easy to say goodbye be it if they leave from old age, or earlier.
Thank you for your sympathy and understanding.

And thank you for the special way your family showed care for felines - you must have gone through this experience many times yourself.
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