Esther was our sweet gray and white kitty. We got her as a kitten from the local tack and feed store where I shopped for gardening supplies.
One day I was in Burdick where I saw a cage with a litter of about 6 kittens that they had found in their barn. They had all had their shots, and all Burdick wanted was for us to pay for those vaccinations. I was smitten.
I came home ready to say what cute kittens I had seen, but no one was home. So I left a message that said what cute kittens there were at Burdick and went out to the community garden. About a half hour later I got a phone call that said “let’s go look at the kittens”. I rushed home and we went over to take a look. This little itty-bitty gray and white kitty was the last one left. In the span of an hour all the other five had all been adopted. We always said they saved the best for last.
We took her home and named her Esther, and introduced her to our little torte named Typo. Typo became her mother and Esther followed her all around, all over the house. They loved hanging out on our upstairs deck overlooking the Green River.
When we move to a house, we were able to let them out in the backyard. They loved that, since they had been indoor kitties in our condo. It was almost a year before Typo was able to hop the fence and go roaming. Esther was never able to jump that high. She loved finding her sunspots though, and would lie out in the grass in the sun. She found sunspots indoors too and would move to a new location as she followed the sun.
She was sweet and affectionate and would snuggle right up to you and let you put her on your lap. However she would nip if you messed with her too much. It was amazing that we could give her medicine so easily when she needed it.
Eventually, Typo crossed the Rainbow Bridge at the ripe old age of 18. It was pretty lonely in the house, so a month or two later we got Max from the local shelter. Introducing Esther to Max went just fine and they got along very well. Both had such low key temperaments. A couple years later we got Zoe, and they all got along real well after some initial hissing.
Then we knew moved again to a new town where Zoe and Max were able to go outside. Esther could go outside as well but only in the backyard. By now she was aging, and seemed to have some signs of dementia, as she sometimes got lost in the house and started crying. We would call her to let her know. We were still here, and then she would follow our voices until she found us.
She never stopped loving her sun spots, and with lie for hours in the sun either indoors or out. Her love of warm spaces made her lie by the fireplace in the winter or under our credenza next to a heat vent or any other heat vent. It was a challenge getting her out from under the credenza.
When we lost Max, and got a kitten a month or so later, it was her turn to become the mom to our little orange, polydactyl tabby, Raja. She would snuggle with him, when our twitty Zoe would only hiss and swat. And they groomed each other. Eventually that stopped as he grew and became very much an alpha kitty.
Esther was aging, and was around 15 years old. She was beginning to have a few too many health problems. She needed thyroid medication and had lost her beautiful elegant tail to an odd non-cancerous tumor. Some of her other systems begin failing, and we realized it was time to keep her from suffering any longer. So we made the sad trip to the vet, where we let her go to find her own sunspots in the catnip fields in the sky. Esther, we love you!
Playing In Catnip 