Cali joined our family in April 2006. When we met her, she was an adult cat at Petsmart with a non-functioning neon green eye and a normal eye. She was being overlooked by families among all the smaller and younger kittens. She came to the rescue pregnant and stayed until they adopted her kittens out. She joined our home as the only cat but definitely brought her Mothering behavior. She immediately adopted Tippy as her buddy. That is not surprising since 3 different vets asked us to make him a hospice dog based on his gentle personality. When Tippy needed his insulin, he would go sit in front of the refrigerator twice daily about an hour before it was time to receive his shot. Cali would be right there with him and she would rub his face with her face while he was getting his insulin shot. She has a big heart like that. She does have a mischievous side where she likes to sit on the stairs in the morning and swat the dogs on their way out for their morning walk. Every single time they go outside for a walk, Cali sits inside the storm door looking out at them. Sometimes she bumps noses with them as they come back in, as if she is counting her babies to make sure everyone returned inside safely. She spends the mornings chasing patches of sun around the house as it comes in from different windows. She has a kitty condo on both levels of the house so she can escape the dogs if she wants and they give her great views outside. She is strictly an indoor cat. She has a huge sense of curiosity and has been to 20 states. She sat in many hotel windows looking out and spent part of the drive sitting on the center console of our SUV so she could look out of the front windshield. She joined Klunkers and Libby on two trips across the country, plus has traveled to see her family out of state. 2015 was a tough year for Cali. She started losing weight and was diagnosed with overactive thyroid. She received the radioactive iodine treatment. A month later her non-functioning eye started to swell. The specialist said she can receive eye drops to make her more comfortable but that they will stop offering relief at some point and the eye would have to come out then. Since she is already 12, we opted to have the eye (non-functioning) removed now so that she didn’t have to undergo anesthesia and surgery at some time in the future when she is older. When the doctor removed the eye, they discovered lymphoma behind it. We are very lucky we did not just choose eye drops! At that point, she began chemo and handled it like a champ. Even the doctors were amazed at how well she did. There were only a couple of times when we waited an extra week before starting the next round of medicine. A little patch of her hair thinned but other than that, she is doing great.
