My Heart Is Overflowing

My heart is overflowing today and I don’t even know if sharing all of this is the right thing to do.

The Cat House on Wheels safely transported us from Florida to our new home in Crystal Lake the last days of March. The cats, Carly and I remained while Jim took Zeke and went to our home in Girard. The past two weeks and the next few weeks will be spent with Jim down in Girard doing the hard work of preparing for the physical move of household goods and doing all the necessary home repairs and yard work. I, on the other hand, will remain in Crystal Lake and have the sole responsibility of caring for our cats, kittens (16 at present count) and Carly. Jim brought a truckload of “stuff” to me this past weekend so now I have a lot of unpacking to do. Jim and I are a great team but when we move, Jim becomes the Gunny and I and anyone else who happens to be around to help are the troops. For those of you who have been a part of the military, you know exactly what I am referring to. The one problem is that I am not real good at saying “Yes, Gunnery Sergeant” in answer to his commands. Instead I bark back! So although he just arrived on Sunday, by Monday I was ready for him to go back to Girard! And I told him this!

Then we opened Jim’s email and learned that our very good friend George had a massive stroke and the prognosis was not good. Today we learned he did not make it.

Let me tell you about George. He is the one person you hope you are seated next to at a dinner party. He is funny, loves life and seems to love everyone he meets. He makes you feel like you are the only person in the room and you have his full undivided attention. To quote Jim, “What a man, what a friend, what a Marine he was!” He knew everything there was to know about the civil war and was writing a book about that subject. The last time we had dinner with him in March, he was 80 percent finished. Every time we were with George and his equally wonderful wife, Pat, he never said good-bye. Instead he would say “I miss you already.”

So does our little bickering matter – or does it matter how quickly our “stuff” gets here or is put away. No…what does matter is that Jim gets up here as quickly as he can so we can spend every precious minute together. I know that can’t happen right away and I can’t change that but what I can change is cherishing the time we have together, even when he is “the Gunny.”

When we are together we love spending time with our animal family, and the kittens bring tremendous joy to us. Izabella gave birth to five beautiful kittens exactly on her due date, April 4. Izabella is like no other cat we have–you have probably read about her in previous posts or saw her photo on the home page of our website–a photo of her in the refrigerator. And when she has kittens, she continues to be a little stinker! The newest mama and babies are always in our master bedroom so we can keep an extra special watch on them. So Monday night we go to bed and about 3:30 a.m. we are awakened by Izzy and all five of her babies–she brought all five up on the bed in between us! I would have to contact a cat psychologist (yes, there are!) to see why she did this but I think she just wanted to be with us so she brought along the whole family! After lots of loving, she seemed to be content to go back to where she and the kittens belong.

Izzy and her kittens. Notice she is lying on Jim’s pajama top so she feels he is near.

Birth, death – the circle of life. What is the meaning? I just hope I can finish my days here on earth like our friend–loving people, caring for them, giving them my undivided attention.

George, I miss you already.

Posted by semperfisiberians on April 15, 2015

https://semperfisiberians.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/my-heart-is-overflowing/