Today, I am remembering my beautiful cat, Cheetah. She was born on July 22, 2001 and passed away on August 18, 2017 at 3:56 PM by my sister’s and mine side. It was heartbreaking.

She was my first pet in the United States. My mother and I spent weeks looking for a black female cat for you see, the ones that we found were males, and then we finally found her. She had a sister and I wish that we could have taken both of them, but my mother and I knew that my dad would be furious so we chose our Cheetah. My mother has a tradition of owning a female black cat by the name of Cheetah and so this tradition continued with my first pet in the United States.

When we brought her home and let her explore her new surroundings…we lost her the same day! Talk about, embarrassing. We moved everything around, and unhooked the bookcases from the wall after finding a hole that she could have used to get in and she wasn’t there. We ended up finding her under the sink. There was a hole that we didn’t know that existed and she used it to hide between the dishes…smart girl. After that, we covered that hole with a big towel so she couldn’t hide there. A nice memory. ^_^

Another fun memory is when she grew up a little and learned to climb stairs. Back then, I used to sleep with my door open and I woke up due to little stalking sounds. I was scared! I even thought that I had a ghost visitor (I did see a ghost once…it was at a neighbors house, don’t judge). But, it was Cheetah, the explorer! From then on, I started closing my door because I couldn’t have her in bed yet because I was scared of crushing her and wanted to keep her safe.

There is also a sad memory. At one point of her cat life, she got really sick where doctors said that they didn’t know what to do and said that maybe it was the right decision to put her to sleep. My mother and I refused to believe that. When she was sick, she would crawl to her cat littler box to do her business. She would roll in and roll out. My mother and I told her countless times, that it was okay to do her business on the towels, on the floor, anywhere really just to save energy. My mother stayed home for a week with her from work and rocked her close. After a week, her strength returned and she felt safe. From that moment, she became a lot nicer and loved my mother. She loved me less, but still we were her humans and my mother and I were happy that she lived!

Cheetah was there during a lot of memories- of when boys threw rocks at my window to apologize or confess to me in their love, when I went off to school dances or proms (I’ve been to three proms), when I was sick and when I was happy. She was there for my high school graduation when I received my Bachelor degree. She was also there when I received my masters. She there for a lot of memories like that and I’m thankful.

She did a number with her claws on my future husband when he was just a boyfriend. His arms were so scratched up that people asked if he was a cutter….what a cat! He still loved her, too and cried when he heard that she had passed away.

She was also there when I was pregnant. Boy, was she excited about meeting my little one. Whenever I would lay down for rest, she would walk over and lay near my tummy, purring. I’m so glad that she got to meet my son. She got to know him for his fist six months. I’m sad that I didn’t let her near him too much, I was afraid that she would scratch him by accident or that he would be scared, but I could see that she loved him.

Yes, she was there for a lot of my memories and I hope that she will always stay in my memories!

Thank you for listening,

Angelina

              

    

(when I was pregnant! Look at that love! She was purring!)

 (with my son in February in the first weeks of his life. He’s with Grandma and Cheetah in the pic)