Princess - The Cat Who Came Back: Not That Bag

PRINCESS's STORY

"The Princess Diaries" began about fourteen years ago as emails to cat loving friends. They were stories about Princess's diary, a tabby cat who was born in 1989 when I rescued her. She was about four months old. She was in tune with everything I did or even think, she always amazed me so much, I just had to write about her. After nineteen years with me, she went to the Rainbow Bridge in August of 2008.

The house felt painfully empty after her passing. But I vowed never to replace her. In my heart, she was irreplaceable.

And then I started to see her in my dreams. Suddenly, I remembered one morning that I had seen her back in her healthy form and I was told "she is ready now". I was not sure what that really meant.

Just a couple of days later, I was led to a pet psychic by other people at an Expo event. It was an unplanned, spontaneous occurrence, I had not thought about visiting a pet psychic and did not even have a picture of her that they could use.

Princess' spirit came through the pet psychic who repeated those same words I had heard in the dream: "She is ready" .... to be born again.

How would I find her? How? She said it would be "like a Petsmart, one of those places".

I took it in stride. I still did not want to replace her with any other cat. One day, about 2 months later, I found myself suddenly making a turn off the main road into a Petco I never go to, away from my area. I felt compelled to go in even though I had no other cats to care for. I spotted an adoption fair poster in there... and I heard clearly in my heart and mind the thought that 'you've got to follow up on this - don't let it go'. I did.

I returned for the adoption fair and as I entered, I began to feel like I was in a trance.. I kept looking in cages but could not "feel it". Finally, I came to the end of the cage line and I stood motionless, staring at this tiny tabby baby sleeping on top of a larger orange fluffy kitten. She was less than 2 months old. As I stood there, contemplating my feelings, the orange kitten stood up and came to the front of the cage, reaching out to me with his paw... He let out a meow at me as he saw me take a few steps away, mulling this sight over in my mind. I turned to see this kitten holding out his paw at me, literally meowing for me to come back...

When Princess II came home with Gabriel, she was barely 2 months old. And she knew. She knew all the old tricks and phrases - and she wanted to show me exactly what she knew.

She was born in the same type of body, a tabby.

I could not tell while she was a tiny baby but she grew to have the same type of bow-legged look to her hind legs. She also carried the same fear. Princess was fearful of the scrunchy sound of plastic or paper bags all throughout her life with me, it may have been something that had happened to her in her first 4 months of life before I rescued her. She also had a herniated belly when I found her in 1989. Now this new kitten, as she grew, had a slight protruding feel on the same spot of her belly, although vets did not detect anything 'wrong' with it.

To this day, the new Princess is still fearful of scrunchy bag sounds while no other cat in the household is.

"It's time for beddie bye now", I said when she returned to the house as a two-month old - and on cue, she climbed up the stairs immediately and looked down at me from upstairs for my reaction. I was just floored ...this little kitten responded to a phrase she never heard of before. "Wanna get some 'nummy-num'?" - Yes! She ran to the bowls. This was her first time as a new kitten in the house.

It was a miracle - and we are still living it. It has been now been over 8 years later now since her new incarnation.

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Not That Bag

Princess is very adept at knowing the difference between grocery bags, other bags, and my personal bag. Or purse as we call it. She knows that when that bag gets set down or brought down, it's a signal that I am about to leave. And when I come home, I drop it on the floor for her personal inspection, it seems. Not only is she about to run off with my phone when she gets the chance, but nowadays she takes it upon herself to stick her nose in the purse, see what's in there and what not. She has taken secondary ownership of 'the bag', mom's bag. And no one else except mom has rights to it. Consequently, the following scene ensued one recent evening as I'm lounging on the couch and looked over to see what they were doing.

They were both hanging out by the bag on the floor. Princess was sitting on her back legs in an upright position right next to "mom's bag". Gabriel was next to her when I noticed he began to assume a submissive position. He lowered his fluffy body below her eye level and his eyes got real big as he looked directly at her face in an intense way... His ears were not down but I could literally see what he was trying to communicate:

"Pipi, please! It's cool! Really... I'm not gonna do anything!" She stood there craning her neck in that certain crooked way, a potential ambush imminent. "Well, I don't care... you're too close to mom's bag already. You need to back off. " Gabriel lowered himself even lower if that was at all possible for that fluffy belly to flatten on the floor. "Okay, Pipi, okay... What else do you want me to DO? " "Pipi's" paw extended to poke him just once. "Just stay away from mom's bag."

It took one paw poke to break the impass... and maybe a quick nip on that fluffy belly and chase into the kitchen... She does the same thing when he gets too close to the scratching post. I got three of them..

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