It’s 11:58pm on April 25th. Technically, it’s still today… and my kitteh officially turned one (1) today!
Happy Birthday, Mon Petit Coeur!
The only pets I’ve owned before her were some a non-edible pepper plant, a fortune tree, three cacti (two of which died due to *cough cough* malnourishment) and 27 aloe plants. You may ask, how do you kill a cactus? Well, it’s pretty simple.
Leave it behind a photo frame. Forget that you had it. Try to find it two months later. Forget about that. Then, after another month, remember that you put it behind the photo frame and find out that the plant had rotted from the inside out becoming one mushy mess. Rinse and repeat (yeah, it happened twice).
Thankfully, my aloe plant fared better and was able to have babies… 26 of which I gave away. And when I graduated college, my friend, Tony, took my aloe plant in and apparently, it’s been thriving under his fluorescent lights ever since.
But I digress. Last year, as part of my birthday present, I gave myself one piercing and one kitteh. Her original name was Rosalina, but I decided to name her Mon Petit Coeur instead.
Growing up, my parents used to call me “xiao ju gan,” which translated directly into English means “my little/dear pig’s liver.” Yeah, it doesn’t sound as pleasant with the direct translation. I did want to stick with the theme of organs, and I love pet names with a non-English flare. Hence, “Mon Petit Coeur.”
Sometimes, Mona. Usually, fattie or babeh. But officially Mon Petit Coeur. The gals at the East Bay SPCA have a lovely time trying to pronouce it, whenever I have to get her a health certificate to fly.
She’s officially been with me for 10 months. And I’m proud to say… she’s not dead! (whoohoo!)
I have absolutely loved being with her. She’s so playful around me and lets me make weird faces (see below) all the time. Sometimes, she’s a bit shy around strangers, except Ty, since he was there when I got her. But mostly, she’s provided endless entertainment. She’s even been good enough not to whine (too much) during the two flights to and from Houston. My parents love her… to a point of ignoring me. And she’s spoiled enough to have two sets of litter boxes, dish bowls and food choices in both cities. I even had to return 48 cases of cat food because ‘it didn’t conform to her high standards of taste.’
In the last 10 months, I’ve started to act more like a mommy. I’ve made sure she’s fed every night (even that one time I got home really late and completely sober… and fed her out of the can instead of her regular food dish). If you read my Tumblr at all, you’ll periodically see pictures of fattie, usually asleep, since I blog very late.
She’s comforted me when I’ve cried, by tip toeing up to me with her huge saucer eyes and snuggling in my arms. When I’m working in the living room until 4am, she’s right there with me, curled in a ball and napping until I’ve showered and brought her to bed. In the morning, she’s usually on the bed, at my feet, or if I sleep in, she’ll step gently over my body and sniff my nose. Those times are the best. There’s nothing quite as cute as being woken up by a bundle of fur and some inquisitive sniffing.
As some of you know, last month, her foot got caught between the foot board and my window sill, when I was trying to pick her up (her feet dangled more than usual and I underestimated the height). She bit me the full quarter inch of her incisors and completely scarred my hands. Both my hands were immobile for over a week. But as I was luring her out from under the couch, my palm and fingers still bleeding into the bandage, something about her look told me exactly how guilty she felt. People say that they can communicate with their cats. It’s somewhat true. (Okay, I have no idea what she wants when she’s just looking at me vacantly with the huge eyes that I would totally love to have. However, in this case, the body language was clear.)
We’re a team. We support each other. We play together, and yes, sometimes we fight together. Mon Petit Coeur really is my little heart. I wouldn’t trade her for anything, and with her holistic, organic diet, I’m hoping she’ll be with me for a long long time.
