We in the Herron home are sad today. Our oldest cat Big Block died yesterday. She’d been ill for some time. And she was old, 19 ½, as far as we know (we adopted her 19 years ago and the vet said she was about one or probably less). That’s over 100 in the equivalent of human years.
She was the queen of our feline household for every one of those years. Although she had been challenged several times, she remained at the top of the cat totem pole. In all honesty, she was queen of our whole household. She had a fabulous sense of time. I never needed a watch during the days at home, since she came and found me at noon and at 5 PM for lunch and dinner. In the past year or so she would wake before me, and if I didn’t stir, she would stare, and stare, and stare at me until I had that odd sensation that I was being watched and would wake up. Of course I would get her breakfast then. I rose early this morning but only because Fender knocked over my glass of water on the nightstand.
Years ago, when we drove home from work there was a stray calico cat who was hanging around our house. I had a cat before moving to Florida when I was single. Bill was quite allergic to them. I figured I would be old and gray before I had another. Each day as we approached the neighborhood, I would wonder if the cat would be there. I would dash inside and find something a cat might like to eat. I would bring the food outside on our porch so no allergens would enter the house and set Bill sneezing. In time, we bought a few things we knew she’d eat. And then we bought cat food.
During this time, another cat showed up … a small red tabby kitten. Bill brought her in the first day he saw her. He was petting her while I was in the shower, and he told me she had a motor so loud that she must have a small block Chevy inside her. Small Block! The name was born.
Not long after, both cats showed up for dinner. I went inside the house to dish up some food with both cats following me indoors. When I brought dinner outside, there was no one there to eat it. I went back in to the kitchen and found that the adult calico was breastfeeding Small Block. Well, if the youngster was Small Block, her mother had to be Big Block.
We live in Florida, so the weather is quite nice very late into the year. Even so, I began to think about winter and how these cats would fare in the cold. The image disturbed me. Bill knew I wanted to keep them. He says that he saw a “light” in my eyes when we’d get home and see them. One day he made me a deal. He said we could adopt the cats and bring them indoors as long as they stayed out of the bedroom so he could sleep in peace. Deal!
We knew that Big Block had been someone’s pet because one day she followed us in for breakfast and stayed the day while we went to work. Imagine our surprise when we unlocked the front door that evening and she strolled out! Just as if she owned the place. She wasn’t feral, that’s for sure. So we gathered her up to take to the vet to determine her state of health, and we could not find Small Block anywhere. Although we would look and look, we never saw her again. That didn’t stop us from going forth to adopt Big Block. The vet determined she was fine in all regards. She didn’t even have fleas. He estimated that she was less than a year old. We had to pick a day so we could celebrate her birthday, so we picked our upcoming anniversary.
Not too much time passed, and Big Block matured into a lovely long-haired woman.
Big Block loved being with us and we returned the sentiment. She taught us all about unconditional love, something neither Bill or I had experienced growing up. While we actively tried and tried to become pregnant, it looked like Big Block would truly be our daughter. She sure didn’t mind.
Another tax season came and went. We began to worry about all those hours she was spending alone. We did our best to play with her and cuddle, and she loved it all and never complained. We figured she needed companionship, so we adopted two kittens from the Humane Society. She hissed at them. Eventually the girls became quite friendly.
Tasha and Big Block would play and sleep near each other. But really, Big Block would have been content to be an “only” cat.
I was growing through this time period as well, deciding that tax returns weren’t my passion, but books were. I opened my own bookstore, and Big Block helped me start my library at home.
It was Carole Nelson Douglas who named my four cats “The Fab Four” and she even dedicated her book SOMETHING FISHY to the four.
That bookshelf was her favorite spot for a while. Then she moved onto the bench in the bedroom where my grandmother’s afghan lay. She would find special places and nap in them for months and suddenly find another spot.
One of her all time favorites was inside Bill’s 1957 Corvette which stayed in the garage. Whenever we couldn’t find her in the house, we’d usually find her out in the car, imagining all the places she could go.
She continued to mature, and her tastes went toward fish. We decided to treat her, and discovered she loved tuna, I mean, what cat doesn’t? She also loved crab and salmon and almost anything fishy, but her favorite was minced clams.
She also enjoyed turkey from the deli and chicken fingers too. She’d lick the bowl when we made scrambled eggs. Just the other day I was plying her with favorites to get her to eat at all, and I brought out an egg. She was almost eating it before I cracked it open. Big Block looked like a huge cat with her long fur, but in reality the most she ever weighed was 10 lbs.
We adopted another kitten from a friend whose cat had gotten out and had a litter as a result. Indy was just seven went he passed away. Tasha developed chronic renal failure and she passed on at 14. Riley developed the same illness the next year and passed at 15. Big Block had now outlived three siblings.
A friend of Bill’s assistant Natalie found an adorable gray tabby cat in the middle of a local road. Natalie was babysitting her at the office one day thinking I wouldn’t be in, but I stopped in for a moment and saw the cute kitten, and yep, you know what happened. Zora joined our family at just 15 ounces.
We extensively renovated our home for two years, and Big Block found this sunny spot in what became the library.
When we finished that renovation, we adopted two boys from one of our carpenters who had rescued a pregnant stray cat. Adorable tuxedo cats, the boys were terrific with each other. Big Block really didn’t care much, as long as they didn’t bother her. We did our best to teach the boys just to leave her alone.
The trio of Zora and ‘Stache and Goodrich became good friends, and Big Block stayed the queen. I think this photo graphically shows that totem pole: Big Block on the top, Zora next in line, Goodrich under her, and ‘Stache was elsewhere. Life was good on Bunyan Street, with either four or five cats in the yard, depending on when you checked.
But Big Block was losing weight. She developed some thyroid problems which we corrected with medication. She developed some liver problems which turned around once we had the thyroid under control. But then her kidneys began to malfunction. She was down to 5 lbs now. She didn’t stray far from her spot on the upper left side of the bed. Even though Bill and I had switched which side of the bed we slept on, Big Block stayed on the left, which was Bill’s side at the end. As a consequence, they spent a lot of time together, especially at night. They often slept back to back.
And then Fender came. Another stray that had been rescued and taken to our vet whose office is across the street from our neighborhood. They called and asked if we couldn’t foster him, since he was young and needed the socialization.
Big Block just sighed, and gave us her “I am smiling” pose.
As it turned out, Fender was just two weeks old and we sent him back to the vet to be fostered by someone who could give him round-the-clock feedings. Two months later he was back at our house as part of our family. Fender and Big Block came nose to nose almost immediately, and she really didn’t react at all, I suppose since he was so small.
Here she is watching Fender play in the kitchen sink. What was really going through her mind was wondering when it would be her turn. She always loved a warm glass of water.
Six months later Big Block had fought the good fight against thyroid problems and liver problems and kidney problems, and the arrival of six kittens into the house. I think most of all she battled time. She was with us for 19 years. Neither Bill or I can truly imagine life without her.
Five o’clock came and went today but there was no cat to come remind me that it was dinner time. We had pizza for dinner, but there was no one to bug us for cheese from the top, as Big Block always did. The other four cats didn’t come to dinner. Their dinner bowls are full. They’re wandering around the house trying to find something.
Life will go on for them yet someone they’d always known here was Big Block. She’d been part of every day of their lives here.
After we took her to the vet yesterday, one of the young afternoon lab techs came to help, and he was young than she was!
I’d taken time over the days she was so rapidly declining to tell her about what we humans know about the Rainbow Bridge. I told her how she’d see her brothers and sister there, and that she’d be healed and whole and without any pain. She must have been ok with that. I glanced over to “her” side of the bed this afternoon, and there she was. I know it takes a leap of faith to believe that she was visiting from the Rainbow Bridge, but that’s what I believe.
Big Block will always have a home with us. She’ll live on in our hearts forever. As for the Rainbow Bridge, I guess we’ll find out one day. Until then, I bet she is just as stubborn and bossy with them.
THE RAINBOW BRIDGE
There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys with lush green grass. When a beloved pet dies, the pet goes to this place. There is always food and water and warm spring weather. The old and frail animals are young again. Those who are maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other. There is only one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on Earth. So, each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up! The nose twitches! The ears are up! The eyes are staring! And this one suddenly runs from the group! You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her in your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again and again, and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting pet. Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together, never again to be separated.
Author unknown
We miss you already Big Block. Love, Sandie, Bill, Zora, Goodrich, 'Stache, and Fender
March 26, 2011
I think you all know that Bill is on the board of directors of our local blood bank -- Suncoast Communities Blood Bank. He was on the board for nine years and then had to leave because of term limits. He's now in his second batch of terms.
I don't know everyone on the board, and the members change over time. However, I don't think any other board member has been as dedicated as Bill Herron. He goes to almost every function in support of the organization. No other board member goes as far as he does. I'm not trying to criticze them here, I am simply pointing out how much more Bill does than others.
He's passionate about his involvement with the blood bank. He very much believes in what he is doing. He's also passionate about being a blood donor. He often says that he's a donor first and a board director second. He almost exclusively does apheresis, a procedure diffferent than whole blood donation in that he must sit for an hour or two, connected to a cell separator that removes the blood product they need, such as platelets, and return what they didn't take back to Bill's body. In this way Bill can donate much more of the actual substance they need and he doesn't loose all the rest to waste in processing. Bill has donated more than 37 gallons of blood. 37 GALLONS!
Suncoast Communities Blood Bank (SCBB) opened a new blood donation center in Lakewood Ranch a couple weeks ago. Bill went to the ribbon cutting and found himself in a couple of photos ...
The man in the center is the new CEO for SCBB. You can see Bill just over his right shoulder.
When the CEO called out names of those involved with SCBB, he asked them ro taise their hands. You know Bill isn't shy. He really raised his hand. Check it out.
When Bill drove to the opening, he took his 1957 Corvette because it draws attention, and he hoped that by parking it near the blood bank, it would draw attention to the blood bank as well. A photographer covering the opening for her magazine shot this photo of Bill with the car, and I love it:
I'm so proud of you Bill.
It seems that I've been trying to catch up with myself for years. Somewhere along the way I'm going to have to accept that you just don't get caught up. I am part of the information overload population, and I'm trying to read everything that seems to show up in my in-box. I just can't do it any more. Even though I want to read it all, some of it will just have to be deleted.
That includes the two years of scrapbooking magazines that have piled up. You bet I want to look at every page! Do I have the time? No! I guess my dilemma is that I have two major hobbies, or is that three: scrapbooking, card making, reading. Add to that the fact that I have several chronic and debilitating illnesses which I always want to learn more about plus taking care of all the medications, doctor visits, lab visits and all the , add to that the testing at home I must track for the doctors. Add to that taking care of four or five cats. Add to that taking care of our home. Add to that helping my CPA husband in his business. Add to that being his wife. And there isn't any more room for adding!
OK, I made an exception. In November we added a new kitten to our household: Fender. He was found sitting in someone's driveway in our neighborhood two months ago and brought to our vet whose office is across the street. We were going to foster him but he was much younger than first suspected and still needed formula. The vet and his wife took care of him for two months. The vet's grandson named him. He asked his grandma if they had a new kitten, and she replied no, that they were just taking care of him because he had been found alone fending for himself. With the innocence of youth, the grandson said that his name must be Fender. We're keeping it.
Here's a photo of Sandy Pepper handing him over to us now. She loves Fender, but with almost a dozen dogs and cats at home, they're just full up! They picked us to take care of him, and I feel very good that they entrusted us with his care.
Normally when you bring a new cat home, you isolate them in their own room so that they can get to know the resident cats under the door or via smells and scents wafting back and forth. From day number one they were all interested in each other. We had Fender sleep in Bill's walk-in closet, a small room on its own, so we could get a good night's sleep, maybe.
Introducing Fender to our four resident cats was so easy. Except for the first night. Goodrich and I have gotten very close since Riley passed on. I'm sure he felt either threatened or jealous when we brought Fender home because he took off for underneath the couch in the library. We managed to coax him out after a few hours. And then both older boys ('Stache and Goodrich) became very interested in him and tried hard to be his friend. Zora was curious but a bit wary. Big Block couldn't care less, which is what we expected of our 19 year old queen of the roost. Within four days Fender was all over the house with the four cats (with supervision) and doing great.
Here's Goodrich observing from on top of the kitty condo.
And here's 'Stache watching from a closer viewpoint...
The queen of the kitty totem poll, 19-year-old Big Block, shows her opinion of that matter ...
She looks just like one of those "I am smiling" posters!
I think we brought Fender home on Thursday evening, and after reading the Sunday newspaper, well, here's the scene ...
And we are once again the Fab 5.
Sandie
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
