Remembering Angel

Today is Sunday, March 14, 2010.

This is a picture of Angel. She was the second cat my husband, Bobby, and I rescued. Our first rescue, Thunder, was having trouble with hairballs, so I went to Petsmart in Manassas, Virginia to look for hairball-control food. At that time, 1999, Petsmart was the only place I could find the specific formula food for hairball control. When I got inside, there was a section of the store devoted to animal rescue groups with pets up for adoption. I was simply curious, so I went over to have a look. On that day, June 24, 1999, a group called "Animal Haven" had just brought in some gorgeous cats for adoption.

I took one look at Angel (her name given by Animal Haven was Daisy) and fell in total and complete love. I read her limited bio and since she was female, I knew she and our male cat, Thunder, would have an excellent chance of getting along. When the clerk came over to see if I needed help I told her that for some reason I HAD to take "Daisy" home. I could NOT go home without her. I had some shopping to do at Costco across the street but the clerk said she would be happy to keep "Daisy" until I returned. I filled out the adoption contract and paid the minimal fee. Sure enough when I was done at Costco I went back to Petsmart and they put "Daisy" in a cardboard carrier and off we went, to Angel/Daisy's forever home.

Thunder was not happy, at first. For one solid week everytime I looked at him he would hiss and walk away from me. But, after a week, he softened up and realized "Daisy" wasn't leaving so he might as well get used to her.

"Daisy" would not recognize that name at all, so for a month I tried many different names on her and she would not respond to any of them. Then, one day in July, I was sitting on my bed, reading the Bible out loud. This isn't something I normally do, or did, but that day I did read "out loud." When I was reading John Chapter 12 Verse 29, (this is a Living Bible for those interested), "When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder (keep in mind our first cat is Thunder), while others declared an angel had spoken to him," Angel stood up and looked me square in the eye. I said, Angel, is that your name? Every time I said Angel after that day she responded. Now I don't know about you, but I find this to be an amazing story. Believe it or not, that's up to you, but it is absolutely true and miraculous as far as I am concerned. So, that's is how Angel changed her name, from Daisy to ANGEL. Thank you God for our precious Angel!

Angel passed away on April 15, 2009 and left a huge empty space in our lives. Since her arrival into our lives, we rescued 11 more cats, but Angel was unchallengingly Alpha female of the clowder.

Thanks for reading this story about my precious Angel, gone but by no means forgotten. As a matter of fact, my husband had an inspired idea to bury Angel in our front yard and plant a garden at that spot.

Here is a picture from when he work diligently to create the most beautiful garden I have ever been connected with.



And, here's a picture from later in that summer of 2009. Beautiful, don't you agree? It seems to have Angel's blessing!



The cat in the above picture is Kelly, a neighbor's cat who comes to visit, eat, and just plain hang out, daily. She is a long-haired act, but her coloring is similar to Angel's. But, Kelly is a whole other blog post. Stay tuned. I love you and thank you for reading.