Hi All!<p>I submitted a story to my local newspaper in September and guess what? They printed it....on the front page of their Christmas edition!!!<p>I just thought some of you might enjoy it too...here it is:<p>******************************************
MELE, KALIKI and MAKA
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Means Merry Christmas in Hawaii)<p>2000 had not been a good year. <p>It all started with Earl Gray - my cat, not the tea. His disappearance had been the last event in a not-so-great year.<p>The year began with my husband of 11 years, deciding in January that he didn't want to be married anymore and moving in with his 28-year-old girlfriend, with whom he'd been carrying on an affair for two months. I was crazed and in the worst pain of my life. <p>In addition, I had just started a new job, with deadlines already past. In hindsight, that was a good thing - a lifesaver really - but at the time it was another big stress. <p>My standard of living had dropped and emotionally, I was as strong as a feather. In October, I ended up in the hospital with a stress attack. And to top it all off, my shed was infested with rats....BIG ones.<p>I wasn't looking forward to my first Christmas alone. And after months of coming to terms with being a 44-year old, separated woman with an expected future very different from the one she had hoped for, my cat disappeared in November. <p>Now this wasn't just any old cat. This was Earl Gray: “The Best Cat in the World.” He spent his days hanging around the gulch, his evenings mousing and his nights cuddled up in his cat condo on the porch. During the times he came in the house, he was treated to a saucer of 1/2 & 1/2 in the kitchen; that set his little motor going.<p>He always seemed to know those days that I was feeling particularly low. He could always be close and sometimes even licked the tears off my cheek. What a precious cat!<p>But he'd been gone for six weeks and no signs of him. I really missed him.<p>I finally put up a Christmas tree, got the ornaments out and tried to get into the holiday spirit. It wasn't working too well. On Christmas Eve, my neighbors dropped by after a trip to the local dump. They called ahead and said they had a permanent solution to my rat problem. As they pulled in the driveway, I saw the most precious sight....three little kitty heads popping up over the dashboard! Apparently they had been left at the dump...to die or fend for themselves. Who would do such a cruel thing? Abandoned....I could really relate to them. But now I knew that their lives would be very different than they had expected. They were named Mele, Kaliki and Maka. <p>Mele, the "blond" and only female, is shy with a sweet soprano meow. She loves to be held and scratched on her neck. Kaliki, the "redhead," is the go-getter of the bunch, being the first to learn how to jump on the couch. He has a strong, demanding meow and a curly "pig-tail"...a birth defect. He is the most playful and has big, soulful eyes. Maka, the "black brother," is mellow and loves to be held. Not easy to spot when he's under the end table, he is quick to come out if you dangle a string nearby.<p>Quite a handful, but even with my husband gone, I definitely was not going to be home alone that Christmas!<p>Now it's been a year since Mele, Kaliki and Maka came to live with me on the farm. My two black labs, Samson & Delilah, have accepted them as family. And in May, Earl Gray came home too! The kids love him and he "puts up" with them, as any older brother would do. <p>My Christmas cats. They've kept me busy and helped me to move on from the destruction of my marriage. I now look forward to the future and realized that not everything that starts out bad, ends up that way. And I can prove it....three times over! Mele - Kaliki - Maka!<p>******************************************<p>Aloha,
Ms.O
[img]images/icons/grin.gif" border="0[/img]<p>[ December 12, 2001: Message edited by: Ms.O ]</p>
