Kitty watch

Our cat, who is either 18 or 19 years old, is most likely reaching the end of her days. She is quieting down, which is unusual for a cat that has always been vocal, loud even. Right now she has a bit of a swollen jaw, probably an abscessed tooth or infected salivary gland, and she's been getting thinner for several months. Her coat is getting duller, which I understand happens as the oil glands cats use to groom themselves dries up. We find her sleeping and resting even more than normal, and I haven't heard her holler in the night in a few weeks.

She is our spinster cat. We've had a really sweet cat (Old Cat) and a fairly mean cat (M&M), a fraidy cat (Marigold) and a few other kittens that didn't hang around long, but Sweet Pea is our old biddy cat. If she were human, she would wear a bun and glasses, and might be a nun. She is cranky but loving. She likes things her way. She will holler at you if you don't do what she wants. She used to sit on the back of the toilet and swat me as I used the facilities if she was hungry. She was definitely the boss of our two cats, and I believe mourns the loss of Marigold to this day.

Sweet Pea was a companion for our beloved Old Cat, and probably kept him active enough for his lifespan to stretch to 17 years. When he passed, she welcomed the kitten Marigold. But the best story about Sweet Pea is how she found us.

We were getting ready to go on a vacation when the kids were young, and my daughter and I had to stop at the bank. The bank was located on one of the busiest intersections in town, and as we left and walked to the car we heard a kitten's meow coming from under a bush. We both stopped in our tracks, worried that a kitten was anywhere near the busy street. We looked but couldn't spot anything, and then she meowed again. Did I mention she is vocal?

We found her and pulled her out from under the bush. She was really pretty, with a healthy coat. She was bright-eyed and friendly, in a "what took you so long?" kind of way. We took her home with us, but I told my daughter it was temporary because a) we didn't need another pet and b) we were getting ready to leave on vacation. I called the no-kill shelter, confident she would find a good home, but found that they didn't take kittens. We didn't want to take her to the humane shelter because we knew what would happen if she wasn't adopted.

But then we found out she had one thing going for her: a polka-dot belly. She actually had polka-dots, kind of like leopard spots, on her belly, and they were freakin' adorable. Once I saw the polka-dot belly, that was it. She was ours. And we were all on board.

And now, so many years later, she is still with us but probably ready to go. She is quiet for the first time in her life, but it was her meowing that led us to her and probably saved her from being hit by a car on the busy intersection. Right place, right time, right cat for us once again.