Remembering Rufus
I believe it was February of 2009 when we first met "Rufus." He kept showing up on our back porch to visit us every day. We thought he was homeless and began giving him some dry catfood when he came to the door every day. He would literally make himself right at home, so much so, that my three cats allowed him to share one of the porch chairs. We asked around and found out that he belonged to an older couple that lived on a street behind us. So we were very relieved to know that he was not lost after all.
Enjoying a Porch Chair
Rufus would come and join our family every day and he began staying longer and longer for visits. Even to the point that his family would have to walk over from the street behind us to fetch him home in the evenings. Even so, we often would find him fast asleep on a chair first thing in the morning as he would have stayed out all night at our house instead of his own. It seemed that he was trying to say he wanted to live with us.
Moving Day
Apparently, the couple that owned Rufus had been wanting to move to an assisted living home due to his owner having Alzheimer's. One afternoon when the owner stood calling for his cat to come back home, my husband walked over to have a talk with him. He just wanted him to know that Rufus was welcome to hang out with us and that we made sure he had plenty of water on the porch during the day. It was two days later when both of Rufus's owners walked over to our house and asked if they could chat with us. We thought they were upset with us for some reason.
We could not believe it when they asked us if we would consider keeping Rufus permanently. They had been wanting to move but were not allowed to take a cat with them. They had been holding off moving because they did not want to put Rufus in a shelter knowing that at his age his chances of being adopted out would be rare. Now, mind you Rufus had been spending an entire Spring and Summer with us on our porch. He had already chosen us to be his new family and had been inching his way into our hearts for months. Now, if you do not believe that animals know what is happening in a household, you would believe it after experiencing the transition with Rufus changing living conditions all on his own.
Total Acceptance
We were so surprised at the offer to take the cat. I mean how often does that happen. Anyhow, we both looked at each other and I laughed out loud telling Rufus's parents that he had already moved in on his own. From that day on Rufus stayed with us in the house at night and found some favorite spots to claim for his own.
Two months went by and in November the couple sold their home and moved to an assisted living facility. Before they left they gave us a folder containing all of Rufus's veterinary information. He was 17 years old when he came to live with us permanently in the fall of 2009. We knew he was quite old by the way he would walk and climb up a set of stairs. My bed became one of his favorite spots in the house to take his naps and being a crystal enthusiast, I would surround his little body with healing stones to help him with his aging aches and pains. He would even paw at certain ones and move them closer to himself like the one in the above photo. I just loved seeing that they helped him with easing his arthritis.
Healing Session
For two beautiful year's Rufus was an integral part of our family. It got harder for him to walk and his back legs would often give out from underneath him. We gave him a couple of pet stairs to help and he was so happy to be able to climb up on my bed and also his favorite porch chair too.
It has been almost ten years now since we took Rufus to the Vets to be laid to rest. He became very feeble over the two years he lived with us and slowly began to lose interest in food and water. It became harder also for him to walk a short distance without falling over. We made that very hard decision to let him run free over the rainbow bridge.
You would have thought that we had owned Rufus for years by the way we sobbed all the way home from the vets that day. Even after all this time I still have tears running down my face now as I type the ending to this story. We so loved having him as an addition to our family. He was a very special cat with a very old soul and we were blessed to share our love with him.
RIP Rufus
Until next time, this is Sunscape...
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