She came to us a stray, pregnant, ready to give birth. It was 1990. We fed her outside the house for a few days before she gave birth in our backyard. Little did we know the effect this cat would have on our lives. She was a domestic shorthaired cat. She gave birth to 5 kittens, one was still born and the rest lived, but for how long would depend on our compassion and fortitude. Whether she gave birth on our basement porch or we moved the kittens there from under a bush, I don’t remember. I do remember worrying whether or not Rinny, which was the name we eventually gave her, would be willing to raise these kittens with us there. After a while we began to worry about predators since our porch was open and whether or not Rinny would abandon her kittens, so we decided to move them into our basement.
At first she didn’t take to the kittens, we had to keep pushing the kittens into her teats to try and get her to feed them. We felt safe having the kittens in the basement where they couldn’t climb the stairs to the rest of the house. We left the door to the basement open a crack to let Rinny have the option to come up stairs if she wanted to. It would be a while before the kittens were big enough to make that trek themselves. The kittens were cute. I named them after Star Trek characters, Number One, Wesley, Worf and Data. Data was unique in that he was the only kitten that looked like his mom, and he also had the distinction of having 6 toes on each of his front paws.
Rinny eventually took to feeding the kittens. Rinny, herself, was under 7 pounds, malnourished, with assorted diseases. I think it was an intestinal disorder and an ear infection. Of course given that she was sick, we had to treat the kittens also. All proceeded to heal and become better nourished. As the kittens grew older, we had to decide what to do with them all. Neither my wife nor myself wanted to own a cat and a clan of kittens. As cute as they all were, we were not pet people and we were both allergic to cats.
The first to go was Number One. Someone answered an advertisement we posted, came to our house and chose it. I had posted signs in the school that I worked in and at the Vet’s office and that is how Worf and Wesley were selected. The custodian at my school took Wesley, subsequently to be renamed Rocky. And one of the people that worked at the vet took Worf. Finally a colleague’s daughter came to look at Rinny and Data. As much as she wanted both, she only took Data. Data was renamed, Zoe, and last time I heard about him, he had moved to Africa. But that was15 years ago.
As it ended up, we became pet people and kept Rinny. She was named after the dog television star, Rin Tin Tin. She would chase things that I would toss around, like crumbled pieces of paper and ping pong balls as I yelled, “Yo Rinny!” She quickly gained weight and eventually reached a weight of over 12 pounds. As big as she became, she could squeeze herself into the smallest places. We had her neutered and declawed and kept her as an indoor only cat.
When we knew that we were going to keep her, we had a cat door put into the door to our basement. Even when we moved in 1996, we had a cat door put into door leading to the basement. It was easier to have all of her bathroom supplies and food kept downstairs, where she could go when she wanted to.
At one point we got a harness to put on her so we could take her outside, but her desire to quickly go into a clump of grass, eat it and throw up dissuaded us from continuing that practice. Indoors, one of her favorite hobbies was to jump on any sink and drink water from the faucet if it was running.
Rinny was an incredibly friendly cat. Though she didn’t like being picked up, she did enjoy rubbing up against you and when someone walked into the room, she would go towards their feet and drop down on her side and beg to be rubbed. It didn’t matter if it were one of us or a stranger. When our son was born and as he grew up, she was very careful to avoid contact with him. I guess she realized he was sort of a kitten too, and she had had enough with her own.
Rinny had an obsession with kneading. Whenever she would be next to a person she would knead them with her front paws. It was the same behavior that was exhibited by her kittens when they nursed. Early in her youth it was quite cute, but as she got older it became quite annoying as she drooled on you while doing it. With enough shouts of “No” I managed to stop her from doing it to me, but she continued to do it with my wife until much later in her life.
As she got older, she had more restrictions put on her. For one thing, she was barred from the second story of our house. We put up a gate at the top of the stairs and after some training with aluminum foil taught her not to even consider going there. It was a change for her. Early in her life she was allowed to come into our bedroom and even sleep on the beds we slept in. Now she was banned. My wife and I decided that it was better to keep the upper floor, cat free. Being allergic to cats we thought it best. Why we hadn’t done it when we first found Rinny is still unknown to me.
My wife and Rinny had a love/hate relationship. She either showed care for Rinny or wanted to get her out of the house. Rinny’s new nickname became known as Rinny Underfoot. More than once one of us managed to step on her tail by accident.
Rinny was always fascinated with our dishwasher and also any dust that she could find. I never could understand what she saw in the dishwasher. She would constantly go up to it and stare at it. I’m not sure if she saw her reflection in it and thought it was a friendly cat that lived in our house or she just had a thing for washing machines.
Getting old is not fun for a cat. As Rinny got older, she began to have troubles controlling bodily functions. We were very innovative in dealing with her mishaps. Using wee-wee pads in strategic locations certainly made cleaning up bearable. The vets that looked at her, were amazed at her stamina and durability. They recommended diet foods to feed her, which she ate but was never very fond of. She lost a lot of her spunk and spent most of her time sleeping (even more than usual for a cat)
Over the last few weeks she found it difficult to get around. Eating was limited. She lost a lot of hair. She lost almost 2 pounds over the last 3 months and her weight was lower than when we first found her.
It was a hard decision to put her to sleep, but after 19 years (the equivalent of over 92 human years) we decided to do so. We decided to bury her in our backyard near our flowering plants. Unlike our other burials of pet hamsters, fish, and assorted local birds that flew into our windows, I suggested we plant something over her grave to remember her by. (All the other burials were marked with rocks or sticks of different sorts.) My son suggested planting something from seed to watch it grow. My wife suggested putting up a garden decoration that would stand in its place until whatever we plant grows.
Where ever she is now, I hope she enjoying herself. Maybe playing with her long lost kids (if they were outdoor cats, their longevity should have been less.) She will be missed but not forgotten.
