Today is my husband's birthday, which he happens to share with our cat Lily. He hates birthdays so I am going to focus this post on the cat's birthday instead. Her given name is Lily but she has a whole host of nicknames which are all variations of her *real* name which is Monkus. If you met her, you'd know that this just fits her. She is kind of skulky and snarly but can be the sweetest cat in the world too, at least to me and my husband. If she doesn't know you, all bets are off. She turns 9 years old today, I can hardly believe it. I got her when she was a tiny 8-week old kitten from my best friend's grandmother whose outdoor cat had a litter. They were outdoors in a rabbit cage and I walked over not knowing how on Earth I'd ever choose, but she just stood up and walked over to the edge of the cage and meowed at me and made it an easy decision. I love cats, I always have, and have had several over the course of my life. She is special though, she is so full of personality and my husband and I have invented quite the life for her. She's in a jug band, drives a Dodge Neon, has a pet hamster named Bunt Single who travels the world, thinks some weirdos named Larry and Willy are out to get her and was the inspiration for a new word: skronky. My husband and I are the only people who truly know what that means, but it's a combination of skulky, snarly, edgy and slightly neurotic. She is a terribly messy eater, she takes big mouthfuls of food and dumps them on the floor and eats about half the pieces before going back for another mouthful. She loves to curl up next to my hip in bed and is the best player on the face of the planet. I can get her leaping 2 feet in the air chasing after a toy on a string, it's hilarious. She loves popcorn and tuna water and knows the smell of yogurt and the sound of a piece string cheese being opened from anywhere in the apartment and comes running. And she HATES our other cats. I know she misses the days when she was our one and only. She is truly the best and so I hate it when her birthday rolls around because that means she does, in fact, age. And not totally gracefully either, I've noticed that she seems to eat a little less and wind up a bit longer to jump on things. But she's only 9 and always has been and always will be an indoor cat, so I expect her to be around for many years to come.
Here are a few pictures of her through the years:
As a tiny kitten
"Monkus: The Early Years" in Brighton, MA
I call this one "Organic Monk"
With "Pop-up Beano" in the background. (More on Beano in another post).
Monkus as mountain goat
~Just the two of us~
Lounging
And last but not least, my all time favorite. "Say Cheese Monkus!"
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