Everyone Loved Trixie

Trix (the all-orange on the right) was a bargain cat. The animal shelter was so desperate to get her into her forever home that they charged me less than the usual fee. It seems that she'd been adopted once before, and then returned, because she kept stealing her people's keys. I didn't really believe the story, because, first, cats don't generally steal clinky metallic objects (rather than, say, food or strings or balls or other things they can chase), and, second, I couldn't imagine rejecting a pet for such a silly reason, rather than simply putting the keys where she couldn't get them.

Okay, so as it turned out, she really did have a predilection for stealing stuff. Not keys, in my experience, but she had a whole collection of soda bottle caps that she would chase and then hide for future playing. There was absolutely no way I was going to reject her for that!

Over time, as she came to realize I wouldn't reject her for any reason, she stopped hoarding stuff, and left her toys out in the open. Her favorite thing for the last few years was a piece of fleece that she would drag around the house (doing some of my floor-sweeping for me!) like Linus with his security blanket. It wasn't enough for her to simply knead the blanket, she wanted to knead it in the same room with me.

The people who rejected her will never know what they missed. Trix had the biggest heart of any cat I've ever owned, adopting the two month-old kittens I brought into the house, and raising them to be sweet, well-socialized cats.

Sadly, her big heart was also her undoing. She developed heart disease, which was treated within the limits of modern veterinary expertise, but without any real improvement. She was comfortable and happy during her final weeks, and now she will be missed.