When my husband and I were first married, we lived in a mobile home that was located in a park, which wouldn’t allow outside pets.  We wanted a pet so badly, since we’d both grown up with dogs.  And, obviously, dogs need to go outside, so that was out of the question. We were at the Scott County Seed, in Davenport, one day, wandering through their pet department, and I found her –the sweetest little thing you’d ever want to see –a calico kitten with the biggest eyes.  They just cried out to me to take her home.  Daniel was such a softie (and still is) and fell in love with her, too!  We paid for her, and took her home with us.  For quite some time, she never went out.  But, we went away one weekend, and just like “new parents” we didn’t want to leave her alone.  A friend of ours had a farm, and she readily agreed to “cat-sit” for the weekend.  So, Annie visited the farm.  When we picked her up we could see that she had enjoyed playing with the other cats that lived there.  We didn’t think anything about her having made such a strong attachment to the other cats in such a short time, and that she was very lonely.  She started to use all the plants in the house for her litter box, and at first we couldn’t understand why.  We thought we were going to have some problems with her, and then it hit us like a brick.  She was lonely!  Instead of ruining all the plants, we went “shopping” for a new friend for her.  Scott County Humane Society was the “shop” of choice, and we found another beautiful baby.  This little one was a Siamese mix, and had blue eyes that she had to grow into!  Since she was a stray, we had to wait to make sure no one claimed her -it was the longest two weeks we’d had!  Without telling me, Daniel went down on my birthday (which just happened to be the end of the 2 weeks) and paid the fees for her, and brought her home to me!  Kizzie and Annie became inseparable, until our first daughter was born.  They would sit and watch flies between the window and curtains, they would look at the Christmas light together (as well as climb the Christmas tree together!), snuggle together, bathe each other –inseparable!  After our first daughter was born, Annie became so jealous!  She didn’t mind sharing attention with Kizzie, but was not about to share her love a BABY!  By this time, she was going outside fairly regularly (we lived across the street from a corn field, and she loved to “mouse”) and she would disappear for hours to end, and sometimes not even come home at all.  Annie was so terribly jealous of Dawn that we would have to make certain that she wasn’t around Dawn alone.  We actually caught her trying to sit on Dawn’s face once when Dawn was in her crib!  Come to find out, a bachelor gentleman, and his companion had befriended Annie, when she was out on her “adventures”.  Jim lived 2 doors down from us, and spoiled her rotten.  Instead of having a tragedy, we asked Jim if he’d like to keep her.  He enthusiastically agreed, but wanted to make sure we’d harbor no ill feelings.  We felt our daughter’s safety was more important than losing a pet to a neighbor –a neighbor who obviously loved her very much.  So Annie packed her little kitty toys and moved in with Jim.  She’d stop to visit on occasion, and would say “hi” to Kizzie.  (And sometimes I think Kizzie went down to Annie’s new house to have little kitty parties!)  We eventually moved from Davenport, IA to Monmouth, IL, and every Christmas we would hear from Jim and Annie.  He would start every letter to us; “Annie is fine.  How’s Kizzie?  How are your daughters?”  And every year he would send us a picture of her –just like a proud daddy!  It was so very obvious that Annie was first in his life!  Two years ago, this coming May, we received a note from Jim.  We knew before we even opened the note what it said. Annie had died quietly in her sleep.  He told us that he buried her in his yard, under the lilac tree where she loved to lounge.  Annie lived a long life, full of love (and cream!) for nineteen years!  Even though she moved away from us 18 years prior to her death, she still lived in our hearts and always will!