Stories about Pebbles the Cat

The last few days I have been in mourning for my cat, Pebbles.  She was put to rest on December 1, 2013, after 13 loyal years as my companion.  It's amazing to me how I am feeling.  To be honest with you, for the last couple years I have grown increasingly annoyed with this cat.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved her, but it was not always easy owning such an animal.


Cats tend to do what they want to do, regardless of how you feel or if it's good for them.   One of my cat's favorite activities was eating carpet.  Yes, I said carpet.  Does it taste good?  I could never understand it.  She would find a place on the carpet, usually in a doorway, and use her claws to expose threads.  Once, she had found a nice size thread, she would start chewing on it.  In each apartment I lived in, the carpet would be left in shambles.  Corners, doorways, and anywhere the carpet was thin would be a mass of exposed carpet threads, complete with my cat's drool dried on them.  So, it's bad enough having your carpet or furniture trashed in this way.  But to top it off, then the little baby threads are in her digestive system and, of course, you can't properly digest thread fibers.

This means the carpet would come out in her poop, leaving her constipated.  The worst was when the poop couldn't completely come out because she was so constipated.  She would be walking around the apartment with what looked to be a Christmas ornament dangling from her cat butt.  Then I would get the immense joy of having to pull it out with a tissue.  Otherwise, she would be stuck in the "butt scoot" position.  All cat lovers know this one.  The cat rubs its butt against the floor while scootching itself forward with the front paws to clean poop out.

In addition to the carpet eating/constipated thing, our next major addition to my cat story was the constant throwing up.  On a regular basis, sometimes 2-3 times a week, my cat would decide to throw up.  Of course, she wouldn't throw up on the tile or an easy-to-clean area.  Oh no.  Instead, she would actually move onto the carpeted area to do this throwing up, making it difficult to clean.

So, after a regular weekly habit of cleaning off Christmas ornament poop and cat throw up, sometimes you think life would be easier without a cat. But I did love her.  She was my companion.  She was with me 13 years.  Together, we lived through 6 apartment changes, 5 boyfriends, 3 roommates, and 3 job changes.  I have only known two friends longer that are still part of my life.  This is a pretty big loss.

For the last couple days, I have weird experiences like being surprised that no one is there to greet me.  There is no wake up call, and no strange noises that surprise you until you catalog them as "oh, that's pebbles doing [insert weird thing here]."  There is no one to feed, and now I can be as selfish as I want.  The floor is clean of cat litter.  That annoying substance that would appear on my feet after a shower like magic, even when I had just swept the tiled floor.  The other day, I was at my sister's house, and caught myself staring at a ceramic turtle because I thought it was my cat.  So I miss her.

In the next post, I will write about how we came to be in each other's lives.  How I never meant to have a pet, but did anyway.