Fun Photo Hunt Subject Photo Scavenger Hunt #111

      

Photo Scavenger Hunt #111 will be due on Sunday, June 10, at 11:00 PM EST. From Val standing in for her sister Krissy.

Our subject this week will be:  "animals - live or inanimate"

Please note this is an extended Hunt.  You will have ten days.  I gave you the subject so late this week and I wanted you all to have time to take your photos.  Val

Well, everyone who's read my journal for any length of time would know that the one and only animal I would feature would be my girl "Gabi Lin."  Not that there aren't other cute and sweet animals out there, it's just that she's the nearest and dearest to my heart.   I'll tell her history here because if you're a new reader of my journal you may not know her story.

First of all, Gabi (means "God Is My Strength" in Hebrew) has been with me since October 4, 2005.  At that time it had been determined that she was approximately 2 years old.  So I gave her a birthday of October 4th.  She had been picked up by the Humane Society in August of 2005 on the streets of Seattle,  matted, filthy, starving and scared.  The Humane Society kept her long enough to scan her for a microchip and get her stablized and then they put her in the care of a feline foster mom just south of Seattle. 

This dear lady is a breeder of Persians and Exotic Shorthair cats.  Gabi is an Exotic Shorthair.   The foster mom put ads in all the local papers for weeks and no one called to claim her.   meanwhile, a co-worker of mine had an older male Persian that had to be put to sleep.  She also had a female exotic that was about 14 months old at the time and got really weird acting after the older cat was put down.  So she decided to get another cat.  She called this lady and asked if she had any exotic kittens ready to be adopted and the lady said all she had at the time was this rescued female that was approximately 2 years old.  She emailed some pictured to my friend (who promptly emailed them to me) and I knew when I saw them that if my friend didn't want this cat...I did.  She captured my heart the minute I saw those pictures.  I've always had cats, but all those past cats were regular cats...not smooched face cats (aka SFC).  But I thought she was so cute, I didn't care if she did have a flat face. 

My friend really wanted a kitten but told the foster mom, she'd give this two year old a try and see if she was a good fit with her other cat.  One thing that came out when Gabi (my friend and I actually decided on her name together before she went and picked her up)  was handed over to my friend was that she need moist food twice a day because of not having a good diet for so long, she had lost some of her teeth and needed more than dry food to keep her going.  Now my friend only feeds dry food so for two days she had to keep these two cats apart at feeding time and she finally got so frustrated, she came into work one day and said "if you really want this cat, you can have her.  It's just not owrking out for me."   I was so thrilled....I took an extra half hour at lunch, went to Petsmart got a carrier, some food, litter and all the other goodies you need for an indoor cat.   My friend took my new carrier and went to her house about 3pm that afternoon, got Gabi and brought her back to me.  She's been with me every since. 

She is a very sweet little girl...she follows me around most of the time like my shadow, sleeps on a blanket at the end of my bed, and at time, she thinks I retired to sit on the couch and hold her all day.

I know she has had something traumatic happen to her, she's terrified if anyone picks her up but other than that does not seem to be afraid of anyone, except real young children.  I've tried to get her to tell me her story, but she doesn't want to talk about it.

How a little 5 pound pure bred exotic shorthair ended up on the streets of Seattle, I guess only God knows.  But I'm happy she survived and even happier that she ended up at my house.  She is a dear sweet little kitty.

And yes, a couple weeks after Gabi came to live with me, my friend found a beautiful exotic shorthair kitten in the Portland, Oregon area.  So both of us ended up happy with loving cats.

             "Happiness is being owned by a cat !"

So that's my "animal" story for the Photo Scavenger Hunt #111.