Milk just turned 5 around August, I calculate. His first year included serious malnutrition and life-threatening neglect of his health. He was kept briefly in a shelter, and then in a cage at PetSmart, where I found him, sad and sick and frightened and yellow with urine stains. It took months for him to reach a normal weight, to overcome the respiratory and eye infections he had. But from the time I brought him home, he showed no sign of bad effects of the horrors he'd experienced as a tiny starving kitten. He was so affectionate and so eager to snuggle up to me and the other cats. And of all the cats we've had/have, I don't believe that there is one who would have tolerated being "pilled" four times a day as well as Milk has. (To the manufacturers of Temptations and Pill Pockets - you have my eternal gratitude!) At pill time, he hops up on the counter, I hold open his mouth, give him a squirt of water from his kitten bottle, pop in his pills, and give another squirt of water . No fussing, no fiddling - he's totally focused on the box of Temptations that's sitting beside him.....
I feel very fortunate to have found my Milkshake. I have had cats for years, most of whom I loved and enjoyed. (Tootie and Cinnaminnie, cover your ears!) But there is something special about Milk that reaches some deep part of my cat-loving heart. I hold him there with pleasure and gratitude and joy that I have been given the privilege of caring for him and loving him. My sweet white kitty.......
