Rest in Peace Birdie ♥
I want to tell the story of my beautiful, anomaly of cat.
Birdie (short for Bernadette and named after Bernadette Peters) was a unique cat in that she was a rare female orange cat. Apparently only 20% of orange cats are female, making her an anomaly.
She was found as a kitten (maybe four or five months old) at my dad's work, a power plant. She had somehow found herself inside a turbine. My dad had heard her meowing as the turbine was being powered up and halted the process to look for her. She was obviously frightened but he managed to get ahold of her and called my mom and I.
We came to pick her up and bring her home. While fiercely independent, she became an immediate member of the family. Though I was reluctant about it, she did become a partially outdoor cat. She thrived outside.
Inside she was aloof and somewhat anti-social but when outside, she became the sweetest little cat. She'd meow in this sweet sing-song way and want all the pets and chin scratches. She never went far, she never crossed the street, she never harassed the neighbor's chickens, she avoided conflict with the alley cats (in fact, she seemed to strike up friendships with some of them). She rolled around in the grass and sunbathed and occasionally chased a cottontail around the yard.
She did become a bit more affectionate inside the house as she got older. If she wasn't outside, she was in my room. I could talk to her she would occasionally toss in her two cents. When my dear Kaloe passed away, she was there to help me through the mourning process. She was independent but for all intents and purposes, she was very much my cat. And I loved her dearly.
She was a wonderful, beautiful cat and I'm incredibly grateful I got to spend 13 years with her. My life will be dimmer without her but I look forward to the day when I might be with her again.