Sun Beams Through Clouds

This is my first morning waking up to not have Punkin staring me in the face waiting for her food. Today is the beginning of a new morning routine for me. Though Punkin wasn't there, Tino, Milo, and Muffy all were there greeting me with their own unique smiles and purrs.

For the very first time in 18 years, I did not open a can of cat food in the morning. Only Punkin ate the canned food; all others eat dry stuff. Except Tino is waking up to a new routine as well because he would have a small snack of canned food each morning. Not anymore, Tino. You could stand to lose a few pounds anyway.

A huge sigh of relieve overcame me this morning when I went downstairs to the litter boxes and didn't find an overwhelming mess just outside of the boxes. Fear and guilt overcame me last night when I thought perhaps maybe, just maybe, it was one of the other cats messing, and not Punkin afterall. Who is to really know when 4 cats use the same boxes? But what I thought to be true, was. No urine messes to clean up today! Oh, and I didn't wake up this morning to the sound of Punkin hacking up a pile of puke! No more trips to Walmart to fill my shopping cart up with boxes of canned cat food! For 18 years, I have been buying loads of cat food. It gets expensive at 44-48 cents a can. During the past year or more of her life, Punkin was eating 2-3 cans of cat food a DAY! That is about a $1 a day or more. Now I will have more money to buy myself some ice cream :)

Don't get me wrong; I miss her. Terribly. And still hear her walking across the floor from time to time. Since her hips were bad, she had a little "shuffle" about her that was very distinctive. However, today I am looking at the silver lining, and though I miss kissing and cuddling her, I won't miss certain aspects of caring for her.

For those of you who may feel sorry for me for not having to clean up cat vomit anymore (are there any out there?), don't worry. With 3 other cats, they are sure to keep me busy cleaning up their own piles of whatever they decide to force up their espophogas and through their mouths (though dry cat food barf and canned cat food barf are in two different classes of barf....way easier to pick up and clean).

And as an aside: If all of my cats live as long as Punkin did, I will get to enjoy them and love them for another 13 years! That is a long time. However, if I do decide to get another fourth cat, which I definitely don't want to do, but IF I ever do, his name is going to be Francisco. Cisco for short. Its from the movie "Elf" when Buddy the Elf hears a guy's name is Francisco and repeats it saying "that is fun to say!" Indeed, Francisco IS fun to say and will be the name of my next kitty. A LONG LONG LONG time from now ;)

Plus, saying I have 3 cats sounds so much less "crazy cat lady" than having 4 cats. Dontcha think?