From commentor Maody:
She arrived in the middle of my flower garden during hot August, 2003 when I was 48.
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At the time of Mao Mao’s homecoming, our Ma was still alive, though moving slowly and with a walker. All day long this little tiny white and black kitty was yelling MAO MAO MAO hiding in the tall phlox and wouldn’t let me near, but I could see she was injured and extremely skinny. It was a long painful 24 hours before, upon catching me making a cup of coffee at 6 a.m. staring out the screen door looking at the kitty, Ma reached her head around the corner and said, “Nan, you might wanna feed that kitty” which was code for ‘yes, the kitty stays.’ I was out the door in a nano-second with the key to my neighbors’ to grab some dog kibble, mixed it with cream and right away, up onto the porch came Mao Mao. I could tell she wasn’t feral, but a ‘throw out’ kitty.
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As soon as she had eaten, she let me grab her up for lots of petting and inspecting. Saw that her back leg was smashed and prepared to take her to the vet without a carrier – oh well, it seemed the least of our worries. The vet’s verdict was a broken small bone in her foot, a need for antibiotics, a worming and obligatory shots. By her teeth, Pat said she was probably 5 months old which surprised me because she looked to be about 2 months old in size. She would forever have an asterisk behind her name – Mao Mao *toaster kitty. My mother, who said she didn’t cotton much to cats, fell in love with her and spoke to her in a throaty deep voice all the time. I’m convinced that Mao Mao made Ma happier in the last year of her life, often sleeping at the end of her bed and not once getting in the way of her walker or tripping her. Mao seems to have that wonderful sixth sense about how to deal with her people.
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Why is Maody so special to me? My late husband and I had 2 cats in Paris, France. A nice sized mouse gray with white socks and tummy named Chupabeanie and his companion Barbie, black with white socks and long auburn curly Q hairs on her ears and tail and no voice. This was when I fell in love with kitties having grown up in a many dog home. When my husband was diagnosed with AIDS, Chupabeanie became his companion for the duration and his devotion to my hubby was phenomenal. Chupa died, I think of a broken heart, shortly after my husband’s death. Barbie died of breast cancer.
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When I finally got to move back to the U.S. I was hungry for a cat, but didn’t have the money to care for one so my first find KiKi was adopted by a friend of mine. Still feeding feral cats in my neighborhood, there was always that longing for another cat of my own. After the death of our father and two sisters, I moved in with Ma to help her and then came Mao Mao.
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She has seen me through many hard and sad times and always gives joy. Cats know, just like dogs know. I will forever be strangely grateful to the asshat mean people who threw her out so she could come here and be lavished with love and spoiled rotten.
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Mao Mao loves to walk in woods with me down by the creek I call Running Brook that runs through my property. When I work in the garden she’s always nearby. Her claim to fame is a serpentine hunting dance she and a gray fox perform out in the meadow during full moons hunting what we imagine to be mice. My neighbor thinks she’s possessed because she gets along with fox. Maybe so. I know she is my familiar. When she leaves us, someone kindly scrape me off the floor – that’s how much I love her.
stuckinred
What a cool kitty!
Ash Can
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. A great one, well told. Hats off to Maody for giving this kitty such an excellent home.
Luci
She gets along with a fox?? Truly… that’s amazing. She must have special powers. So must you for being such a wonderful mother to the beautiful Mao Mao! I hope you have many long and happy years with her!
WereBear
Some cats have souls that are very very old.
She must be such a one.
Lysana
What a fantastic story and kitty. And can you get video of that dance with the fox? It would be so amazing!
maody
Yes, she loves fox and raccoon. Get out of town! She really does. Though when found cavorting with a pack of raccoon, the straw broom comes out so I can sweep the pack of eight away from her and scoop her up. Just of late, I found a mass on one of her breasts. Luckily it turned out to be a lipoma (benign fat tumor).
Thanks Anne Laurie… This Mao Mao story goes out to one of my friends who lost a kitty just yesterday. When he called to cancel our dinner date, he was weeping and bereft.
maody
Lysana – I’ve tried, but my little canon point and shoot just doesn’t have enough light for capture in moonlight. That would be the youtube coup of the century for me!
Monica
Miss Maody is fabulous, as is her companion. Hard to tell who loves traipsing through their garden more. Every season, every flake and drop, every web and mole is an adventure.
abscam
Kitties who find us, rather than the other way around, are often more finely attuned to our emotional states. I lost one three years ago who, if I could have, I would have married. I swear that he was my husband in some other life. It was all in the way he looked at me and took care of me when I was feeling low.
Josie
Loved your story. I could just picture the two lovely animals dancing in the moonlight. What a great image to carry all day.
Keith G
Very good. This is a great start to the day.
Jane2
A lovely (and loving) story…and the bottom photo is great!
Svensker
Is Mao Mao inspecting a little turtle in that top photo?
Loved your story.
de stijl
I like the first photo. Reminds me of me and crab legs.
gogol's wife
This is a great story. It reminds me of each of my cats (8 over the years and counting), all of which found me somehow when the time was right and each of which has/had a distinct, wonderful personality (or cat-onality, as I sometimes call it).
Violet
What a beautiful story and a lovely kitty. She seems like a truly special one.
Linda Featheringill
Lovely kitty, lovely story.
Reminds me of our Mojii. He found my daughter at a very low time in her life and kept her alive [I suspect]. He has been very loving and wise during the time we have all been living together.
Mojii is aging, is getting skinny in spite of all the goodies I feed him, and his personality is changing. He is more vocal, more demanding, more playful, and more dependent. I wonder if his memory is what it used to be. But we are lucky to have him grace us with his old age.
Blessings on you and Mao Mao.
Paul in KY
Thank you for giving her a home. Beautiful cat. If you could get any video of her playing with the fox, that would be hella cool.
Edit: Just saw that you’d tried.
Admiral_Komack
ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Oakland Raiders promoted offensive coordinator Hue Jackson to head coach on Monday after he helped the team more than double its scoring output in his first year with the franchise.
Jackson will be formally introduced at a news conference Tuesday — two weeks after the Raiders announced they were not picking up an option to keep coach Tom Cable.
“The fire in Hue will set a flame that will burn for a long time in the hearts and minds of the Raider football team and the Raider Nation,” owner Al Davis said in a statement.
Jackson was widely considered the leading contender to get the job as soon as the Raiders announced Cable’s departure. This is Jackson’s first head coaching job at any level.
Jackson was hired a year ago to take over the play-calling duties from Cable and oversaw a transformation on offense. Oakland scored more than twice as many points in 2010 as it did in ’09 — and the Raiders won eight games and avoid an eighth straight losing season.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6031671
phoebesmother
My sis and toaster kitty made the front page. Woot, woot!
And my, Nan, you’re right, she’s sized up some. Would make a nice cat rug judging from the second picture.
What Maody didn’t tell us about those Paris lovebirds was that they were not exactly owned. They’d come to a window in the tiny kitchen, Chupa first, and ask to come in. Barbie would follow respectfully. Chupa was quite solicitous of his girl.
When Nan came back home, I was grooming a kitty for her named Chupazulu *asterisk here: I thought she was a Lulu for some time*. Unfortunately, Nan moved into a no-pets apartment and Chups stayed with me in PA. He now has elected, due to mean male in the area, to live in my neighbor’s garage, where neighbor Aurelio has constructed several beds for him, one kept quite warm by the outlet of the dryer vent. My neighbors, not good at naming cats (Blackie and Midnight for black cats), have taken to calling him Fatso for his rug-like qualities and his swinging belly.
Love ya, sis.
Beulahmo
Oh, I think I love her too! Just from the photos and the story. Thanks for sharing, maody.
My whole life has been lived around cats — over 15 of them when I count those who’ve passed on and those who remain — and every one of them has had a unique personality and temperament. I’ve loved each of them as distinctly as any human I’ve ever loved.
You Don't Say
Wonderful story. Loved it. And love the pics.
tejanarusa
What a lovely story. Thank you. I, too, am mourning my wonderful cat who died suddenly a week ago. He was too young, but he was FeLv pos and what killed him was not FeLv, but a cancer related to his being positive.
He was full of personality, and I miss him terribly, even though his 3 siblings remain.
Good on you for rescuing Mao Mao.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Because my kid is learning Cantonese, I found out that the Chinese for cat (in Cantonese and Mandarin) is….
Mao.
Jill
Wonderful story. She looks like my Oliver (1986-2000), who was also a cow-kitteh. He used to say “mao mao mao” all the time, so his nickname was “Mao-Mao”. I still miss him.
Ash Can
@tejanarusa: Condolences on your loss.
dww44
@Ash Can: Second that. Cats that adopt you rather than vice-versa are especially rewarding. In December 2001 the exact day after my husband had had put down his parents’ almost wild cat that we provided a home to when they sold up and moved to a retirement home nearby, a tuxedo cat showed up to be fed. She was always starving and 9 years later she’s a good bit overweight but otherwise very healthy, and quite the beauty.
maody
hey my big sis, was so hoping you would see this today. hope it cheers your day as much as it did mine. love ya back, and more. i didn’t know it was chupazulu that was now ensconced in Aurelio’s garage. oh me, we and our penchant for rugs and rug-like animals. how’s the store?
and you are right about Chups and Barbie – they would only stay in if we kept the kitchen window open all the time. fortunately for us, we lived in a radiator heated apt. on a lower floor so it was might hot in there most of the winter anyway.
thanks to all and especially to tejanarusa. so sorry, m’dear, for your loss. just too much to bear at times, huh?
Mao = cantonese kitteh
asiangrrlMN
@maody: What a lovely story of your beautiful Mao Mao. She’s just a doll. I can picture her dancing with a fox, and it makes me smile.
@tejanarusa: I’m so sorry for your loss. My condolences to you.
zhak
Late to this thread — lovely lovely story. :-)
& I wanted to let you know, in case you don’t know already, that “mao” is “cat” in Chinese. So appropriate, you know …