I have always called our home "Noah's Ark" because we all come in twos...maybe not right away, but when it came down to it there were two adults, two cats, two dogs and soon to be two babies...but now we are less one in our animal family.
As soon as Sean and I moved into our apartment in May of 2000 I was itching for an animal. I preferred a cat at the time knowing that they were "less work" and independent...but yet loving and protective. So off I went to the pet store one day after work to get a kitten and came home with our Leia.
Sean recalls coming home from work to me standing in the kitchen with a huge smile on my face telling him, "You're a Dad!" He couldn't quite understand why I would be so excited to be 22 years old with no real job and living in an apartment in Asbury Park and HAPPY to be announcing that he's a Dad :) But at that moment a tiny gray tabby kitten came bounding out from under the couch to play with his feet. We were both in love.
Of course we named her Leia because of Sean's Star Wars obsession...fine with me...and hoped to someday get Luke to make the pair complete. Leia was a spunky kitten! She would play...or scratch the crap...out of our feet when they stuck out of the blankets at night, jump on any surface that she could, and most importantly and the main reason why declawing was 100% a necessity with her was her unbelievable ability to run across a room at full speed and UP our legs!!! OUCH!!
I brought her to NY once to the house I grew up in and my mom had long curtains hanging from the windows in the living room. Leia loved all the space to roam around and especially loved to run across the room and UP the curtains! I thought my father was going to have a heart attack...it was awesome! :)
In August of 2000 we decided to get Leia a playmate...a brother preferably to have our Luke...so while Sean was working at a house in Asbury he noticed a litter of kittens on the porch. He asked the woman if he could take one and came home with "Luke" in his pocket. We later found out that "Luke" was actually a girl, so he became Sera...it's apparently hard to tell a boy cat from a girl cat :) She was so small that her bed was a cell phone box and Leia was NOT happy about having this kitten in her house. She would creep up to the box and swat at poor Sera. But very shortly after they fell in love with each other and didn't leave one another's sides. Too sweet for words.
Two years later Luke did come into our lives, but in the form of a pug and two years after that Bella the pug came along too. Leia didn't mind them at all and would lay with them, let them play with her, and because she always acted like a dog anyway, they all fit together nicely. (Sera has always been a different story, a WONDERFUL cat, but HATES the dogs...we'll tell her story when she dies in probably another 15 years...she'll be here forever :)
She's given us a ton of scares in her short life though too. Throughout her first year of life she slowly, very slowly, developed problems with her back legs. She couldn't walk on her paws so she would walk on her "forearms" if you will. She also did a lot of sliding around, but she could run when she wanted (had much trouble stopping :) and could climb stairs with ease. She couldn't really jump onto the couch, so she would paw at us until we picked her up. This condition followed her to her last day...one reason why we knew she wouldn't live as long as regular cats.
One night when we lived in Asbury, Sean was working in Cape May and I was out with some girlfriends for the night. When I came home our window screen was slit and Leia was completely gone. I called the police...frantic...and searched for Leia for hours. I finally found her under a car scared to death and hissing. She's gotten out in every house we've lived in and scared us every single time! Even with a fenced in yard in our current house and bricks along the entire bottom and even up some of the sides hiding all holes, she would always find a way out.
She also had a hematoma of her ear once that filled up SO fast and required surgery. Trying to take care of a poor cat with bad back legs after anesthesia was NOT easy and she had a very hard time with it. After the stitches came out her ear was permanently floppy...gave her character :)
But in the end, the ultimate gift Leia gave us was all the love in the world. Some people HATE cats because they think they're snotty and stand-offish, but not our Leia. She was the sweetest, most loving cat I've ever come across. People who know me will confer that I've always said that some part of my mom was reincarnated into Leia...with her patience, kindness and love. She tolerated more than any cat should and persevered through it all...another cat, dogs, Kiera grabbing her...and she loved us. All she ever wanted was to be held and snuggled with...she was amazing and will never be forgotten. I can't believe that a decade with her has past and she's gone. But, she's in heaven now with my mom able to walk and jump and play with bubbles, happy as can be and we'll just keep her memory alive here.
We love you Leia Legs...March 29, 2000-March 16, 2010
