{"id":1433,"date":"2017-01-21T09:47:56","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T14:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2017-01-21T09:48:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T14:48:16","slug":"never-say-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1433","title":{"rendered":"Never Say Goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a kid, I didn’t have lots of pets. \u00a0We had a few dogs – Brownie (I only have vague recollections of him) and \u00a0our beloved German Shepherd\/Doberman Pincher mix, Savage. \u00a0Savage was the perfect dog – barked at and intimated strangers, stayed within her property boundaries, and never<\/strong> snapped at or bit anyone. \u00a0Like 99% of the other pet owners in my hometown community, pets were kept outside. \u00a0Yes – no matter what the temperature – animals were never allowed indoors. \u00a0My Grandma had cats, lots of them. \u00a0I never liked them or any other cat. \u00a0I will credit\u00a0my dad for my extreme prejudice against cats. \u00a0Anyway, I never imagined any scenario of owning a cat.<\/p>\n

That started to change when Bryan and I got married… \u00a0You see, Bryan loves cats. \u00a0I couldn’t understand it. \u00a0I attributed his tenderheartedness toward cats to his upbringing on a farm, but it was something more. \u00a0He was\/is a “cat person”! \u00a0You know the type\u00a0–\u00a0the gentle and quiet types \u00a0that love to cuddle with a “cute little kitty” at the end of the day… \u00a0 I dodged the whole fiasco of dealing with cats until\u00a0we moved into our first home. \u00a0As I was gardening one sunny summer day, \u00a0this pitiful looking cat started following me around the yard. \u00a0Of course, I told it to go away. \u00a0The next day, I was tending my roses, and again the same pitiful little cat started following me around. \u00a0This time, Bryan was outside and of course started petting the cat and talking to it like it was the most precious thing ever. \u00a0He thought that the cat was pregnant and probably starving. \u00a0My cold-heart briefly thawed and I fed the cat, and a few weeks later it returned – with a kitten! \u00a0After some discussion, I did the unthinkable, I agreed to take in both the mommy (Callie) and baby (Buster) cats. \u00a0I figured that was part of the compromise of marriage. \u00a0After sometime, I grew to love those cats possibly as much as Bryan.<\/p>\n

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Callie and Buster lounging around. This picture was taken around 2004 or 2005.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Rachel loved Callie and Buster so much. \u00a0When she was really little (and really hyper) she would chase the cats around, but she was typically gentle with them. \u00a0Her love for cats is really endearing and so much like Bryan, which made me feel better about having to deal with indoor cats.<\/p>\n

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Rachel with Callie – around 2012.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Just a month before Miriam was born, Buster died suddenly. \u00a0We were so devastated. \u00a0Everybody cried. \u00a0The collective family grief was almost more than my 8-month pregnant self could handle. \u00a0Then, a few months later, our sweet Callie became ill. \u00a0She had lymphoma. We gave Callie medicine for a week or so, but she had little\u00a0improvement. \u00a0After our effort to return Callie to at least moderate health and give her more time with us, we had to face reality. \u00a0While Rachel was in school and Sarah at daycare, Bryan\u00a0and I (along with a sleeping infant\u00a0Miriam) took Callie to the\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0veterinarian’s office for one last visit. \u00a0 \u00a0As Bryan and I said our goodbyes to our “first baby” we both cried so deeply that I thought the veterinarian was going to send a grief counselor to calm us down. \u00a0I didn’t realize how deeply loosing our last cat would upset me. \u00a0I had to rally quickly, because I had to help\u00a0Bryan collect himself. \u00a0After finally returning home and re-grouping, we \u00a0talked through how we would tell Rachel and Sarah the grim news. \u00a0It was tough, but we made it through. \u00a0I wanted to blog about our grief a year ago, but it was just too much. \u00a0I wanted to just get over it\u00a0and move on. \u00a0Even though it’s been over a year since the cats passed away, it is still difficult to write about …<\/p>\n

We hoped that a decent fish tank with pretty fish would fill the whole left in our hearts. \u00a0It was a nice distraction, but of course the girls wanted a cat. \u00a0Sarah actually wanted a puppy, but Bryan vetoed that. After over a year of begging for a new cat, we finally began the process of finding a new pet for the family. \u00a0We went to the Humane Society, and Bryan and the girls instantly fell in love with a cat that looked so much like Callie that it could pass for her twin. \u00a0In the suite next to Callie’s twin was Buster’s twin. \u00a0After a little bit of heart tugging from the girls, I agree to BOTH cats!<\/p>\n

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Rachel meeting “Marlin”. I have no idea how she came up with the name Marlin for a cat!?!<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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Sarah petting on “the cute baby cat”!<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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My brief reprieve from\u00a0dealing with cat hair and cat puke was nice, but love makes you agree to crazy things! \u00a0Well, maybe it’s due to my previous exposure to toxoplasmosis\u00a0(possibly transmitted from our previous cats) that is controlling my brain!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bryan wanted to name the new additions “Sid and Nancy”. The way these two play together, it seemed fitting. In the end we settled with Rachel’s name selection – Hazel and Marlin.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Callie – version 2.0, also known as “Hazel”.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a kid, I didn’t have lots of pets. \u00a0We had a few dogs – Brownie (I only have vague recollections of him) and \u00a0our beloved German Shepherd\/Doberman Pincher mix, Savage. \u00a0Savage was the perfect dog – barked at and intimated strangers, stayed within her property boundaries, and never snapped at or bit anyone. \u00a0Like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions\/1454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}