Friday Cat Blogging ...starring my Chibi

Friday is now the delegated day for me to go on about my cats. I think I'll try to be more organized about my other days too, like have one day to feature Etsy favourites. Thanks to Joanna at http://mywordjewelry.blogspot.com/ for being a model Friday Cat Blogger ☺ You can head on over there to read about her cats too!

We've got two cats, Chibi and Ebi - I'll tell you about Chibi today.

Chibi has been with us since July 2006. My cat Jerzy passed away in March of that year at the age of 19, and that was tough to bear, but then just days later my mom had a stroke and was in the hospital, so that obviously became my priority. The following week, my husband was bedridden, diagnosed with an acute case of colitis. I didn't know who to worry about and take care of first.

We missed having a cat in the house, we missed our Jerzy, but oddly, I think he knew it was his time to go - we wouldn't have had time to take care of him in his weakened state, since I was always at the hospital and Jean-François was not up and around. We thought we would wait until fall to start looking for another cat, but I was poking around on the SPCA website and here is the picture I saw.
I had received emails from a friend and a cousin who were helping to look for homes for kittens and although it was very tempting, I was not as touched as when I saw this photo and read the story of this cat, who was brought to the SPCA because she was pregnant and the owners didn't want to deal with that. I contacted the foster home where she was staying (wonderfully devoted foster mom, Andrea) and arrangements were made for Chibi to come and live with us once her kittens were weaned.

My mom passed away on June 22nd, 2006 and even though it was a terribly difficult time, Chibi helped us through it when she came home with us on July 11th. I know my mom would have just loved her ☺

Wearing the dreaded "collar" after surgery... Like any crazy cat owner, I'm always singing to her, incorporating her name into songs, calling her ridiculous names like, Cheebster, Cheeb-cheeb, Cheeb-a-weeb, Chilli Vanilli, Chichi-bibi - the list is endless. On breaks from working in my studio I can come out visit her and nuzzle my face in her soft white neck as she leans her head back for me. Doesn't get any better than that.
Here she's playing with her sushi toy from Needle Noodles

We saw another side of her last October, when Ebi came to live with us; she is still not enamoured of him, but she tolerates him and even allows him to share the sofa or the bed with her.
She is the best.