By the way, Tony--my handsome, 19-pound cat, whom I will probably not be able to hold for a few years, got a clean bill of health today...except that he, like his siblings, has to have his teeth cleaned.
I wanted to mention something called "Project Jerry". I want to mention this just about now, because it was quite a turning point for me...one which I haven't fully recovered from exactly. The stress of it added up...and here I am. Now, my side of "Project Jerry" is as follows.
Monday, April 28, 2003, was when it started for me. I had overslept, so only had time to get the cats a quick kitty breakfast on my way out the door. (back then, I was still working full-time) I noticed, briefly, that Socks and Jerry didn't check in for their kitty breakfast the way they usually did. But, I didn't really have time to think much of it. I'd just see them later, after I got home. Well...I got home, and still no Socks or Jerry. Hmmmmm....
Now let me back up a bit, and explain something. You see, I had known Socks since he was about a month old. But Jerry, I'd known since the day he was born. So, naturally, Jerry's being missing hit me a lot harder than Socks. Not that I didn't miss Socks quite a bit, but Jerry was one of my special little angels. I remember thinking I should do a few things to try to lure Jerry back, from wherever the hell he was. So I fed the outdoor kitties, gave them some milk, and swept the patio. I knew that my Jerry--if he were around--would have come running from almost anywhere to catch the broom...so I swept.
As nothing was bringing my little furbaby back, I went for a long, long walk through the neighborhood. I looked for Jerry. I called his name. I checked every single corner that I could legally check. Nothing. By the way, Socks was just another missing kitty that I really didn't have the time or the energy to deal with. If he'd come home, I'd have welcomed him with open arms. But I had only enough resources to focus on one--Jerry.
As hard as it was for me, I had to keep going to work during the week. That first weekend, we visited the Chula Vista Animal Shelter. Don't ask me why. Maybe because it was right nearby. But...not nearby enough. When we were there, they were not only of no help to us whatsoever, but also, they gave us bad information. "Oh, he wouldn't be here," they told us. "You're not in our jurisdiction." I wanted soooooo much to give THEM a "jurisdiction"!! I was thinking, too, that if Jerry were still in our jurisdiction, he would have come back home already on his own. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, took him from me.
But, thanks to that shelter, we went out to the County Animal Shelter the rest of the weekends. And during the week, I took my search online. Every day was one more day without my little Jerry. Like I said, I had quite a bond with him by then. So, naturally, I felt like the mother of a missing child. Remember that he disappeared literally overnight on April 28.
Memorial Day weekend was rough. VERY rough. At one point, Jerry's sister Muppet was in the kitchen with me...and she looked at me as I took a kitchen knife and put it to my wrist. I truly considered doing something with that knife. But seeing this little girl kitty, who needed me just as much as her missing brother did, somehow stopped me. Thank goodness, by the way, because in spite of everything I'm going through now, I'm glad I've stuck around.
Wednesday, May 29, 2003: I went to work (again). I resumed my online search for Jerry. Only that day, I decided I was going to ignore the ill advice of the Chula Vista Animal Shelter. That day, I checked THEIR online listing of cats. This took me to something that was then called 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com (last year, it changed to Adopt-A-Pet.com). I put in my search criteria, and there...one of the first cats I saw...was Jerry!! It HAD to be Jerry, I thought! Now of course, Jerry has a twin brother--Tony. And there are others who look like they do. But this one was, without a shadow of a doubt on my part, Jerry. You know how you can generally tell one person or animal from another by the way they look??? That's what I mean. I could tell by the eyes that it was Jerry. He was thin as hell, and he looked rather sad. But it was him. (see above picture). A relatively new organization called PAWS had rescued him from the Navy base, if you can believe that. Now let me explain one more thing. The Chula Vista Animal Shelter was only 3 miles from the house. The Navy Base was 14 miles away!!!!!! Any wonder why I felt like I did the right thing in not believing that "not in our jurisdiction" story?????? Because if I had, I'd never have found the little guy. So, once I saw that picture, I e-mailed and called everyone I had to...and that night, my Jerry was returned to me, safe and sound. See??? It paid to stick around, at least that long.
Meanwhile, that degree of stress for a month must have essentially worn me out, because a month after Jerry's return, I managed to have a gallbladder attack. It was when I got that diagnosis that I also found out that my kidney function was only 15%. But, since I happened to have Kaiser at the time, I didn't get to start dialysis, as I probably should have way back then. That came years later.....toooooooooooo many years later.
So, that's "Project Jerry" for ya. Boy, have I been through a lot. But, the other thing is, I've lived. And that's one thing I'm really, truly missing just about now!!! :-)
