Jessica, my first baby

This is going to be a hard post for me to write and a hard post for my parents to read. Bear with me.

This sweet girl is my first baby. When I was 15, my parents finally let me get my very own kitten. We had a cat, named Kitty Kat (my brother was a toddler when he named her) but she was aloof and not much fun. When she finally passed away at the ripe old age of 16, my parents finally relented after years of pestering from me.

Mom and I went to a pet store that had two kittens, sisters. One was a bright, beautiful calico and one was a blond tabby. Why I don't know but my mom left the decision of which to pick up to me. I almost picked the tabby. But the calico did a crazy sideways run with her little butt in the air and I had to pick her (I think there is a picture of her doing it while attacking a plastic shopping bag but it's somewhere at my parent's). The girl had spunk!

I named her Jessie. It had nothing to do with Full House and John Stamos, I swear. Okay, okay so that is where I got the name but it was more that I just loved the name than anything. Honest. There were no posters of him in my room, those were of INXS.

She was my baby. She slept on the pillow beside mine up until I left home to go to University. She sat on my desk and tried to eat my pencil when I did my homework. She would come running when I ate anything sweet. Her sweet tooth rivaled mine and I don't know if it was nature or nurture. She would even eat fruit roll ups. I know, I know, pet abuse! Frankly what in the world was I doing eating them. Yuck.

After I moved out, I did try to bring her to live with us a couple of times but she was never very happy. Nor was I. I am, quite frankly, highly allergic to cats. Somehow, while I lived in the same house as two cats, I was okay. Not perfect mind you, my nose always ran like crazy first thing in the morning. But once I left there was no going back. Coupled with the fact that she just didn't seem herself and there were no pets allowed where we were living, her permanent home remained with my parents.

My parents, who have now had to make the heart wrenching decision to put down four animals. First there was Max, our huge lovable goof ball. The first dog our family ever had. He was put down a mere month before my Jack came along. That was really hard for me. I wanted my kids to know my big doofus. They do, but only from pictures. His personality, in a nutshell was that he couldn't hurt a fly. He did once accidentally kill a mouse though. He stepped on it without realizing it. That was him. Lovable. Huge. Goofy. Handsome.

Then Zoe, our other cat, had to be put down - I have no picture for some reason. This was sometime around Kamden's second birthday in 2006. Poor guy had suffered from diabetes for years already and his time had finally come. Or rather, my parents had to make the decision that enough was enough.

Then a mere two years later, Kricket, our other dog, had to go for health reasons as well.

Then this weekend, the last in our foursome had to go. Mom and Dad came home to find Jessie barely able to walk. They knew it was time. She had, up until a year or so ago, been as healthy as you please. Then, as is expected in a cat that was about 20 years old, her kidneys began to fail.

Four pets. Four times a terribly heart wrenching decision.

Mom and Dad, thank you for everything. You took care of all of them and all we did was love them. You have done the hardest parts and for that we are so grateful.

And baby girl, someday you will purr on my lap again while I rub your chin like you loved so much. I really wished I would have rubbed you just one more time last month. Had I only known it would it be the last time.

Rest in peace Princess and say Hi to Max, Zoe and Kricket too, will ya? Boss them around like you always did, they have likely missed it.