Josie

"Josie"
Josie was put to sleep on July 4, 2021, she was 14 years old

June 2007 - back when she was 8 weeks old
On June 7, 2007 I went jogging in my neighborhood before work. To my horror, I saw a small animal nearly get hit by a car. The animal sat scared and motionless as the car passed over it; luckily the tires missed it! I thought it was a small squirrel - I ran to the bush that it darted into to make sure it wasn't injured. To my surprise, it was a small grey & black tabby kitten! She had the most beautifully shaped eyes of any cat I've seen, and they stayed that way her entire life. I jogged home and returned with a humane animal trap loaded with moist cat food. The little six week old kitty was dehydrated and absolutely covered in fleas. She wouldn't have lasted another day or two. The vet gave her a pill to kill the fleas, and in no time she was a healthy, extremely playful kitten - my fourth cat at that time. At first I kept Josie in the guest bedroom behind a screen door so that the other three cats could get used to her. Eventually, I let the others into the room to meet her. Like all female cats, Josie instantly fell in love with my boy Tiger. And, as always, he was very good at tolerating her demands to be near him. But she was so playful that she sometimes forgot that Linda and Princess didn't like her much - so she'd dart at them in play. What a spirited little toot.

Josie remained playful and incredibly sweet throughout her life. At night she stood near my left shoulder in bed until I gave her nighttime kisses. And she loved playing with the trackball and laser pointer. When she was 3 years old, I got a new boy cat named Riley (Tiger & Linda had passed by then). Josie & Riley became best friends, and they groomed each other like Tiger & Linda did. Josie developed sever kidney disease later in life, but it didn't cause her much harm until the last 6 weeks of her life. I gave her subcutaneous fluids every day, and she never complained once! But she continued to lose weight and weaken. I put her down on July 4th, 2021. She was the sweetest and gentlest cat I've had, and she is very missed.

Below are some pictures of Josie, followed by several short video clips.

June 2007 - age 6 weeks
Both of the above pictures were taken within a day or two of bringing Josie to my house. What a cutie. Her markings are striking and look a lot like those of my cat Linda.

June 2007 - age 6 weeks
I love this picture; it was taken on just the fourth day after I rescued Josie. Nancy has a special way with young animals - human or otherwise. A few moments after I took this picture Nancy began gently swaying and bouncing, and Josie tucked her head inside Nancy's jacket and fell into a deep, contented sleep.

July 2007 - age 9 weeks
These pictures were taken at my office after I had Josie for three weeks. That's dad on the left and our friend Philip Lindsley on the right. I took Josie to my office nearly every day for her first 3 or 4 months. I think it was good for her to meet lots of people. Eventually she stopped wanting to be loaded up in the carrier each morning at my house, so I honored her wishes and stopped taking her.

July 2007 - Josie age 3 months, Tiger nearly 17 years old
What a great picture. Josie's ears are pinned back as she touches and smells the new flowers in the vase. And Tiger watches his friend from one of his favorite window sills. Josie was a very, very playful kitten and would often try to tackle her much bigger friend, Tiger. He was extremely patient with her, but he'd occassionally hiss at her to try to set some boundaries. Three months after this picture was taken, Tiger suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with heart failure. He lived another 14 relatively healthy months. In the above picture, Josie was only smelling the flowers in her usual investigatory way, she was not eating them. So no worries about toxic flowers being eaten.

May 2010 - Josie age 3, Riley age 2
That's Riley (black & white) with Josie. I rescued Riley in May 2010. He's a playful, affectionate and headstrong guy. And he adores Josie. The two of them hit it off very quickly. After a couple of months together they began sleeping curled up together, and grooming each other quite often (like my first two cats, Tiger and Linda, did oh so many times). Very sweet.