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This is memory of my beloved cat Chelsea. I was in college, 2nd year, and one of my classmates told me that there was this kitten at the vets where she worked. The kitten had had some intestinal trouble, and the vet had to do surgery, and the kitten was healing well, but once it healed, it needed a home.
I told her I would go and take a look at her. She was the cutest little fuzz ball I had ever seen. It was love at first site, and I took her home. Well, that little fuzz ball grew into the most gorgeous female calico cat. She had long hair.
She was gold, brown, some tabby in spots, and black. We didn’t get her fixed right away, and she was an indoor-outdoor cat.
For 5 years she roamed her territory and never got pregnant, so we assumed the vet had fixed her when he was fixing her intestines. Well somewhere in that 5th year, we went on a short 2-day trip, leaving food and water out for her. We came back home and the first thing I noticed was a dark brown smudge on the carpet by the front door.
I thought, weird. Then we went looking for her to make sure she was okay after our little absence. At first, we couldn’t find her. My husband looked everywhere, and we called and called her. Nothing.
Finally, my husband found her under my son’s bed, nursing a kitten. One kitten. Boy were we shocked!!! Chelsea was the most loving cat. My kids were little at the time, just babies, and I have a picture of my youngest son picking up her tail in the motion of putting it in his mouth.
She always was careful around the young ones, even though she got her ears pulled and her tail pulled. She never bit or scratched them. Chelsea always defended her yard with the ferocity of a pit bull.
One year a Labrador retriever came into the yard. I watched in awe as she arched her back, hissed, and as the dog didn’t stop coming, she took off, a flying ball of fur, launching herself onto that dog’s back and attaching herself with every claw available to her.
That dog started yipping and running, and that cat rode that dog right out of the yard. Chelsea lived to be 11. Unfortunately she met with foul play from the neighbors. I could never prove it, but I believe they put out antifreeze for her.
Their yard was part of her territory, and she was there before they were. They were young adults who had no regard for life. Anyways, she went into acute renal failure and died within 2 days. She was the love of my life, and I will miss her to my dying day.