I know I have turned Balloon Juice into Pet Juice the last few days, but this will make you tear up a little, I swear:
That’s Zsa Zsa (renamed to be Sasha, btw) and her new BFF Bizzy, a half blind 14 year old dog, in her new home. If you remember, Zsa Zsa spent a month here after my mom drove her down from my sister Annie’s place in Connecticut. Before Annie rescued her, she had been in 5-6 homes and never worked out, and Annie (who much like her sister has a heart of gold) just took her to make sure she found the right home. She kept her in two rooms upstairs because she has a Mastiff and Staffordshire, but she kept her safe and healthy and fed until she could find a permanent home.
Well, she had trouble doing that, and I heard about it and told mom to just pack her up and bring her home and I would take care of her. So mom did, and had to deal with her bitching for a 10 hour drive, but Zsa Zsa made it here in one piece and I kept her for a month.
I loved her to death and would spend hours with the laptop in her bedroom, but she just never felt comfortable here and I could tell. So when my friend Karen said she looked like her husband’s cat who had died years ago, and then spent some time with her, it was a very easy decision to make.
And now, just a few months later, Zsa Zsa is now Sasha, has gained a couple pounds and really filled out to become an even more beautiful lady (I wonder if it was anxiety that kept her from eating), and spends all day with Bizzy or her new daddy, Karen’s husband, Bob, who loves her so much already you can just feel the warmth radiating from him when he talks about her.
And that is what this is all about. Every single human, whether they realize it or not, has a furry soul mate out there. If you pay attention to the animal, you’ll know what is right for them and the best for them, and sometimes the decisions suck, but if you really love them you will do the right thing every time.
And for a little bit of kibble and some water, walks, and treats, they will do right by you all the time, every time. It’s really that simple and beautiful- the most simple and beautiful thing in our complicated, ugly and far too often mean world. Show a little bit of love to a dog or cat and it will be paid back 1000 fold.
I think when I make the Tunch angel t-shirt, I am going to try to include an option for a slogan on the back that says “We don’t save pets. They save us.”
Oh, and I am going to petco tomorrow to buy new litter boxes and food bowls and then heading to the shelter for Beggar, the six year old Maine Coon mix who will be coming to dominate the house and the intertubes. I’ve made my decision. Wait until you see these eyes on him.
Karen in GA (who really needs a better name)
Look what you made happen.
BTW, she looks exactly like my Phoebe, the World’s Most Affectionate Cat.
Felonius Monk
Amen to that, John.
YellowJournalism
You keep this up, John, and you’re going to make people think the world is a beautiful place.
Punchy
Im currently watching/herding 5 greyhounds and a 1.75 yr old all by myself. Amazingly they all mesh wonderfully. Cool to watch the greys treat the spawn with such respect, and surprisingly, vice versa.
Pets are awesome. Keep up the great work JC.
Suzanne
Yaaaaay! Welcome, Beggar. You have a wonderful butler you have to keep in line. I look forward to hearing stories about his training.
Sandia Blanca
Yay ZsaZsa/Sasha! Yay Beggar! Yay for all kitties!
gratuitous
“Who rescued who?” is taken, but it’s a darned fine sentiment.
You mentioned dreaming of Tunch, and I will tell you that’s totally normal. I still have dreams where one of the boys shows up, and they’ve both been gone for over a decade. Dustin and Oscar were two of the best cats ever.
Annamal
Good luck to you with Beggar (I believe maine coons are very *definite* cats so I believe Tunch may have trained you well)
Face
Does Beggar get a new name, like Lambert or Franco or Rothlessburger?
Violet
Yay! I love these stories. Excited to get to “meet” Beggar. Do you think you’ll keep that name for him, or will he get a new name?
Violet
Miss Sasha does look like she’s put on a few pounds. And she looks so relaxed with her new friend. Awww…
lahke
Congratulations, John. And better fire up that furminator–you will be brushing every single day. And still get mats by winter’s end.
John Cole
@Violet: I need a week to get a feel for him before I name him, but when he came out and sat on my lap today my first thought was he was so big and magnificent I was going to give him two names, and this is what immediately came to me:
John Henry, after the gelding.
Suzanne
@Violet: All my cats end up being named after someone of whom they remind me, either real or imagined. I have a feeling that a Ripley will find me soon.
dance around in your bones
So, is TattooSydney going to have to write a new story titled “The Fat Man, The Beggar and Two Bitches” ?
I’d read it :) Congrats, John. You have a way of attracting wonderful animal companions to share your most awesome life. I admire.
snailbiscuits
This is fantastic news! I am currently fostering two kittens who were abandoned and thrown away in a garbage bag. I look forward to seeing them at the end of these long Army days.
Beauzeaux
John Henry…an amazing horse.
And Maine Coon’s are very dog-like. Love to play fetch. Tricksters. Funny.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Maine Coon? My wife and I are jealous. :) Best wishes to the new addition to the family. IMO, Maine Coons are damned fine cats.
Our cat Stewie was out in the backyard with our son today and my wife called our son in for dinner. I called Stewie in with “Is you hungry?” and he came bounding in and up the stairs to the door, ready to eat.
They aren’t our pets, they’re our animal buddies.
Mayken
A male Maine Coon is a great choice for you as they tend to be one person cats. Also generally big enough to be a match for Rosie.
Still miss out big male Maine Coon, Kipper. Another magnificent bastard. Heh.
CaseyL
Nothing wrong with Pet Juice :)
Congrats on finding a new furry love muffin!
Add me to the list of people eagerly looking forward to meeting Beggar-aka-John Henry. I love Maine Coons, but have never had one; now I can, vicariously.
(Besides all the brushing, you might have to shave his hair down to a buzz cut for the summer.)
Violet
@John Cole: Aww..that’s great!
FlipYrWhig
@John Cole: John Henry was a steel drivin’ man! Wiki
travis
@Face: Rothlessbeggar
wmd
Full speed ahead. Godspeed to you Mr. Cole, and may Beggar will love his new dominion.
Mayken
FYWP won’t let me edit my comment. Just want to add, yes, ack, the fur! I used to joke a about finding someone who could spin the stuff though because damn it is also really soft. Would put angora to shame IMO.
reality-based
@Beauzeaux: yeah, but you gotta be careful with fetching cats.
When my Edith was around 5 months old, I decided to see if I could teach her to fetch the little foam ball. It took all of 10 minutes for her to get the hang of it, and she’s been obsessed with the game ever since. (She’s now 15)
Seriously – she’s a feline cocker spaniel. One cannot say the word “ball” around her, because she starts howling at an incredibly loud volume – the kitty equivalent of “throw the ball! Throw the ball! COME ON, THROW THE BALL! ”
If she finds a ball that she lost under the couch, and manages to fish it out in the middle of the night – the howling erupts again, loud enough to wake the dead, and I have to get up and hide the ball away, or nobody is going back to sleep that night.
She loves to bring you things in general – gloves, socks, bedroom slippers, washcloths, dried twigs – but THE BALL is really the ultimate meaning of her life. She is so happy when the family comes home to visit every summer, as my nephews will throw the ball for her for HOURS. (And remember – she’s 15! )
Be careful what you start, is all I’m saying here.1
West of the Cascades
“We don’t save pets. They save us.” – This. A thousand times this. My cat has been about the only constant in my life this last year as other things have been in near-constant chaos.
SIA
So happy for JG and JH!
The prophet Nostradumbass
I think the new kitty should be named Kaepernick.
Violet
So if the new kitty is named John Henry, will you call him John? Won’t that be kind of strange, calling your cat by your own name? Would he be Johnny? JH?
Jane2
@John Cole: We have infinite capacity for love, and good on you for finding a new kitty to lavish it on. I lost my Trixie to cancer, but the other two kitties in my house filled the love gap. And when It’s their turn to go, there will be others who never take their place, but there will be plenty of love and caring to go around. I can’t wait to buy my Tunch shirt.
Princess Leia
@dance around in your bones: This!
zombie rotten mcdonald
Oh, you sentimental bastard. Now I just have to get some treats and scriches for our kittehs, and they won’t even know it’s from you.
I wasn’t gonna do the Tunch shirt, but if you put that on the back, I have to.
Shit. You big old softy pretending to be a misanthrope. Asshole.
Yatsuno
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Yer evil dude. :P
cckids
@Mayken: Well, there’s always this: Crafting with Cat Hair!! Fun, fun, fun!
zombie rotten mcdonald
It’s taken us much time to arrive at names for our newest owners, but have finally arrived at:
Cat Scabies
and
Princess Monster Truck
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Yatsuno:
How about Tebow?
Violet
I was thinking Mean Joe Greene–more than one name and the green eyes.
Anne Laurie
@CaseyL:
Nah, just a ‘geezer cut’ — short shear from under his neckruff, the entire underbelly & groin, the inside of all four legs, up to the base of the tail. Done correctly, his side coat and fringes will disguise the shorn bits entirely but he’ll still be able to cool his undercarriage against the tile floor. And Cole will be able to keep his ears & ruff & squirrel-tail matt-free without stressing the both of them out too much.
Mayken
@cckids: Lulz! Thanks for that.
Csbella
Nice!
Btw, I’ll spin all the hair you’ll be furminating.
Princess Leia
@Violet: Love it!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Yatsuno: heh heh.
MattR
The poem on (the horse) John Henry’s grave stone seems apropos.
I won’t set the bar too high, so may your new friend fill your heart with half as much happiness and love as Tunch did.
khead
Beggar is a very lucky kitteh.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@dance around in your bones:
I’ll speak to him and see what he says.
Xenos
So, Beggar was the chooser after all!
ilsalund41
So happy for Beggar, so happy for you! We were gone for over 2 weeks to pack up our NYC apt while our girls (4 cats) stayed in our house with a sitter. I love them all, but one owns my heart completely, like Lily does for you. To hold my Annie when I got home was all I needed to right my world. The love they give us does save us.
mothra1
Ok; this led me to Wikipedia the breed and add to my store of trivial knowledge. What a neat history these cats have!
mothra1
Ok; this led me to Wikipedia the breed and add to my store of trivial knowledge. What a neat history these cats have!
OzarkHillbilly
On the front you should have “Some magnificent fat bastard.”
I want that.
Josie
This is good news. I hope it all works out for you and Beggar and the girls. He sounds like your kind of guy.
Susanne
Good story. Be happy together. Now stop making me cry.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Yay Beggar! I can’t wait to meet him.
@reality-based: And it’s not just balls. One of the Twin Terrors regularly brings me empty treat bags to throw for The Game. Complete with kill chirps.
I gave him an almost empty bag with the opening left unsecured, thinking that he would entertain himself digging the last crumbs out. He did. Then he played with it all over the house (cool rattly noises!) until, by chance, it landed at my feet. I tossed it down the hall to keep from accidentally kicking him as he played under the desk. He immediately brought it back. “Do again!”
Nicole
@John Cole:
As a horse racing fan, I vigorously approve of this.
John Henry’s first Arlington Million. He was eight years old when he ran in this one, and he came back to run in it again the next year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ2ByoMBq6k
kc
Happy for Sasha and her new family. And yay for you! Can’t wait to see your new boy.
kc
@zombie rotten mcdonald:
Excellent!
Deb SF
YAY!!!!!! Even though you made me cry at work!
pat
So Tunch’s passing has opened up a wonderful opportunity for another deserving kitteh to find his Forever Home.
Congratulations! That didn’t take long. I look forward to the stories when the three furry ones get together for the first time.
Karmus
Awesome. I’m so glad you picked Beggar, even on the single sketchy description I read.
I have not had much opportunity to express my deepest condolences for Tunch, but you have them. Having read your latest post (about seeing Tunch before hitting the sack and being okay with it) uplifted me a little. Thanks for that, and so many things you have shared.
Gex
You are going to love a Maine Coon. Hands down the best personalities of any cats I have ever had. Mine was a quirky mofo, just weird as hell in the most delightful ways. I’m so, so happy for you, John.
Pet Juice has been very renewing for me during this time. Painful and sad, but I feel so much better about *people* when I come here.
Gex
@Beauzeaux: My maine coon could catch. I would wad up a scrap of paper, toss it up, and he would rear up on his hind legs and CATCH the thing in his two front paws.
I, Floridian
@John Cole: That’s great! One of John Henry’s grooms at the Kentucky Horse Park said he liked to trip people when they were leading him, among other shenanigans. A good definite name for a Maine Coon cat.
EL
Don’t know if anyone mentioned this, but my Maine Coon mix, Winston, was fine with being put on my shoulder and carried wherever. A big contrast to my other cat at the time, an American shorthair who hated to be picked up at all.
Winston would also keep me company at any gardening endeavor, nosing around the site of weeding or digging to “help.” Damn, I miss him, much as I love my current fat furball who can never get enough petting, and is lying on my legs as I write.
jackmac
Of the 13-plus cats my wife and I have had over the years, our first was the most beautiful and memorable. “Pumpkin,” our Maine Coon, came to us from a farm while we were in college and had luxurious fur, beautiful eyes and the most lyrical “meow”. He was also quite quirky. didn’t like other cats and grew a little crazy in later years. But we loved him nonetheless. Good luck and may you have many happy years ahead with Beggar.
The Red Pen
While we’re on the topic of pets saving us, my wife dug up an interesting book: Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology.
It’s about/by Caroline Paul, who was recovering from a serious accident. During this time, her cat, Tibia, went missing and she was devastated. The cat miraculously returned after a week or so and there was much rejoicing. Caroline’s partner, Wendy, did some research and found a GPS tracker they could put on the cat so they would know where it was going.
This is all explained in the blurb at the link. What it doesn’t explain is that Tibia was on the prowl with a pal. Then, the pal got cancer and died. What followed were a series of changes in Tibia’s prowling pattern that mapped to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief. My wife helpfully sent some shots of the GIS renderings of the patterns, but I can’t post them.
I thought many BJ’ers would find this interesting — I have no connection with the book or the author.
The Red Pen
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, but if some of us wore that, people would say, “How are you magnificent and why is there a cat angel on your shirt?”
p
it’s a gift to recognize where unconditional love dwells in one’s heart.
Ann Marie
I love those words for the back of the t-shirt! Be sure to let us know when it is available for purchase.
Forum Transmitted Disease
I wouldn’t have had this happen for anything in the world. That being said, you’re going to have a ball with the Maine Coon, I think Tunch probably trained you well for this challenge as, while they are pretty mellow, they are also very…opinionated.
p
@MattR:
truly
Mike in DC
My first two cats were mutts, but had a lot of Maine Coon in them. They were such awesome cats. I can’t wait to see the pictures.
phoebes-in-santa fe
Cole, I can’t wait to meet the new Maine Coon. Whatever you name him!
A Ghost To Most
Probably not applicable in your case, John, but if Beggar/John Henry turns out to be an escape artist as good as our main cat Winnie, I wanna put a plug in for Pet Loc8ter. This thing really works, allowing us to track her down quickly and easily. It also has the benefit of beeping and flashing the device on her collar when activated, and she has learned that when it goes off, it is time to head for home.
We also use it to alert any rabbits she might be stalking.
Bulworth
Hooray for Beggar and for you, John.
Just make sure you keep Beggar’s hindend area shaved so he stays clean after doing his business in the litterbox. I got a Maine Coone last year and her long hair sometimes, um, leads to messes.
Ted & Hellen
A silly little drawing for Tunch
Marcelo
My brother has a super longhaired cat (not sure if he is a maine coon or not) but he routinely gets him the “Lion Cut” because he lives in Phoenix and little Feets hates having all that hair around in the summer.
I definitely think it’s true that there are soulmate cats. My cat Antigone is like this for me. But when it’s Tig’s time to go, I don’t want to think “well, that was it, all other cats will not be as magical” because honestly there will be other soulmate cats, but they do it in different ways. You will have more amazing transformative cat experiences with other cats, but it is true that none of them can or will replace Tunch. It’s just a new connection, is all.
Anyways, welcome Beggar! It’s gonna be epic.
RenoRick
Way to go John! I have had a Maine Coon for almost 6 years and couldn’t love that fat ass more! They love their people and are quite loyal. 20lbs of cuddly goodness with a purr that could wake the dead.
dance around in your bones
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: I would be most interested in TattooSydney’s reply :)
T. Scheisskopf
Damn, son, I am so happy for you!
And what the hell; get two. The grabassery will be worth the food bills.
schrodinger's cat
My soul mate kitteh is my boss cat Yogi. He sleeps on my shoulder every night, snuggles does pushy paws and nuzzles my neck. I am his preferred human, he can be feisty but is also a lover boy.
CommishTheFirst
A Maine Coon? You do like the big cats. A local store had a Maine Coon adoption event last month and we almost brought one home, but our older kitty Lucy is in declining health and my wife didn’t want to stress her out. I’m looking forward to pictures.