mom was always into taking care of cats even if she doesn't openly talk about it, she's allergic but still loves them

december of 07 we adopted max from petsmart, he's the one looking at the camera

max was a relaxed boy cat, very soft, sort of went limp when you picked him up

and he was very attached to my mom, even if he wasn't a total love cat he'd always jump up to get attention from her specifically

she swears up and down he'd sound out "maaaama" at her

unfortunately our time with max was short lived

see, when you screen a cat for adoption you have to note any diseases or disorders whatsoever, max was declared clean by petsmart

he wasn't

max began to seize and scream horribly around september of 08, we were horrified and at a loss for what to do to help relieve his pain, so we took him in to the vet

he tested positive for feline leukemia and we had to make the decision to put him to sleep

talking about it still tears me up inside, heck looking at max and remembering how he was right now is hurting, but there's why you need to doublecheck for yourself on what cat you adopt from petsmart to be sure they have an actual clean bill of health I suppose (unless they tightened up those measures since 2008)

conversation between mom and the woman who sold max to us: "I just had to put my cat to sleep because he had feline leukemia. you told me he didn't." "oh...do you want another cat?" "no!"

so mom went back to work (she was teaching fourth grade at the time) very sad, having lost one of the few cats that attached itself to her rather than my stepdad (he has a gift with cats for some reason)

enter one former student of hers named freddy batt

he asked her what was wrong (mom doesn't usually show much sad emotion like that, let alone crying) and she told him that she lost her cat

scene later that night: back to school night, freddy batt comes running in with a backpack

"MRS. JACOBY, I BROUGHT YOU A CAT."

he sure did, apparently he had a little family of black kittens living in his backyard, he picked the one he named "mufasa" to bring to us

so mom is left with bringing home this kitten, driving home with it sitting in her lap, paws on the steering wheel. dave says "what is that" when she comes home

"freddy batt. brought me a cat."

I don't remember exactly what I did when I found out, but I did want to name her blair, mom disagreed because she thought I was referencing the blair witch project (and people who know me would know I wasn't). we settled on claire for her name, and let me tell you right away we noticed claire was LOUD

constantly making noises, gurgling meows, sad meows like the world is ending, very responsive to when people talked to her

our neighbor doesn't like cats, or any animals really, he's a nice guy he just doesn't like them much, he especially doesn't like cats coming into his yard and crapping in it

this is related because claire explored a lot at the time and got caught in a trap, from there she was brought to the pound and we didn't know until later, which was upsetting. mom went to get her back, of course

fun fact: there are SEAS of black cats in shelters and pounds usually, the stigma against them is alive and well. also mom was left trying to figure out which one was claire

finally she called: "claire...kitty kitty claire"

"mmmRROOWOOOOWWWWW"

"that's her, that's my cat"

I don't know why but the attendant objected to mom picking her up and claire hissed at the lady when she tried to take her from mom, claire very rarely hisses or expresses aggression, I guess taking her away from Her People is one of the triggers

and yeah at the time she didn't have a chip or a collar, which was dumb of us, but always note your cat's individual personalities like how they meow for situations like this

so those are the wild wondrous stories of claire the fluffball cat!!

spoilers we also figured by the size of her paws she'd turn out big

she did

9 years later she a real big kitty

she likes to lounge everywhere, especially places she shouldn't

when you get up from a chair she's like "my city now"

i saw a picture of claire and the dates and i got really scared at first

i thought this was a memorial post

NAH I JUST WANTED TO TALK ABOUT HER

and I want to hear about other peoples' cats too

I'm just in a very big "gosh I love cats" mood today

also yes claire isn't completely black she has a little white patch on her tummy

she's 9 years old today and very healthy except for the part where she begs for table scraps and follows you around like a dog!!

she'll also hear dave coming home and go running "DADDYYYY"

also a very rare picture of our mean kitty grayson coexisting peacefully with a cat, I think max was too relaxed to be considered a threat to her

i love claire so much i'd be heartbroken if anything happened ;;

I think about what I'll do when she eventually passes away every once in a while and I get Very Sad

also I'm a total doofus and forgot to mark this for animal death even if it was like ten years ago

clairebear....

Chibi has a white patch on her belly too! We call it her bikini spot cause it looks kinda like that lol

Claire is such a pretty babu

speaking of big ol babies, Rurik (orange) hanging with his younger siblings Demmi (gray floof) and Tybalt (sleek gray)

what good fluffs!!

also REIKO BELLY

TUM TUM TUM

the best pictures of her are her tum tum