Gattoni Despacito: 17 years!

March 15, 2018

Gattoni Despacito: 17 years!

The kitties turned 15 for two years so are now 17. I think I was really stressed job-hunting in 2016 so lengthened one year into two. They are happy campers with their birthday falling in March. As they are aging slowly the theme song for this year is "Despacito" sung by Justin Beiber and Daddy Yankee. I played this for them as they slowly shook their fluffy bum-bums to the rhythm.

Come and move that in my direction

So thankful for that, it's such a blessing, yeah

Turn every situation into heaven, yeah

oh, you are

My sunrise on the darkest day

Got me feeling some kind of way

Make me want to savor every moment slowly, slowly

So much of the version of this song is perfect for the old Kitties birthday. I got them when I was 18 and had my first apartment and had no idea how to adult or face life and lived day to day and night shift to night shift at the restaurants in historic Annapolis. I was blissful and ignorant of the need for savings or health insurance. When we could clean the restaurant after it closed the other equally young and silly girls and I would turn the music up and goof off dancing and cleaning the tables and go home happy. I remember being in college and studying with Bentley sitting on a pile of research papers watching me drink too much coffee through the night, get 4-5 hours of sleep and get up to keep going. I went like a little battery without stopping and on the weekends I would often study in the Nimitz library at the Naval Academy where no one else would go study and fall asleep from exhaustion. Several times a sweet old librarian would bring me a sandwhich or meatloaf his wife made for me and he would ask about my classes and tell me to keep going and to take care of myself. I knew I wanted to be a librarian but his kindness showed me how librarians support the tradition of knowledge and also is a social justice job. I didn't know then that I would become a librarian.

Going home I always felt the sweet love of my two fluffy boys. Fatty was always eager to eat and Bentley was the little man of the house. He would check me out to make sure I was ok, then grab a quick bite to eat and hurry back to sit on me and make sure I was home and his and calm for the night. Each time I got the flu Bentley was there sitting and howling close-by. They were always patient with me when I moved and knew that we were in this together. I told them several times to make a deal with me, I got them till death do us part but they needed to make it one more year. We've had so many ups and downs and in-betweens. In moments of joy I've danced with them (sometimes against their will), in times of distress they have sat on me waiting for me to stop crying, and all the days in between they have shown their loyalty, their funny side and their feisty bossy side.

I would highly recommend getting kitten brothers from the same liter. They have been together since day 1 of their lives. They each express their feline masculinity in different ways. Fatty is sensitive and vain and playful and not afraid to be emotionally clingy and needy which I love his loyalty but sometimes not his jealous side. Bentley is assertive and strong and sensitive to good and bad vibes and he loves protecting me and respects my prayer time and often sits purring while I pray and meditate with the rosary. Bentley loves long snuggles and hugs. Fatty likes the idea of a snuggle and though he is emotionally needy and clingy he needs space to know you are there but not on top of him suffocating his creative space. They sleep apart except when they are sick, then they can't be torn apart. They both like it when I sing to them and both like old country music but despise Rhianna and Taylor Swift.

Bentley likes tuna and Fatty prefers to lick plastic. Bentely hopes to escape the house each time the door opens and dreams of having a Nicolas Sparks moment under a bush with another pretty kitty. Fatty is anxious each time the door opens and forsees some other creature rushing in to eat his food. Fatty has the strength of a small rhino when he eats and nothing can drag his little squared body away from his food-bowl. Fatty prefers my mom to any other human on the planet and is desperately in love with her. He gets depressed each time she leaves and and refuses to eat until she is Skyped. Bentley loves all humans especially sick ones and nuzzles them to let them know they are loved and ok and will be just fine.

So those are my old boys. They are 17. They are from Anne Arundel County. They are cats but they are little angels sent to be with me half my life. Happy birthday old boys. Here are a ton of my favorite pictures over the last few years: