When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #39

39- Esmeralda – dressing up the cat

We had cats when I was growing up. The only dog we had was a black and white collie. I was a toddler when we had Laddie. I don’t even remember Laddie. My mom and dad told me one day they saw Laddie going out of our front drive into the road and walking very slowly. They went out to check what was going on. Then they saw a blonde little head even with the top of Laddie’s head. That little blonde head was ‘me.’ They told me Laddie was ‘protecting me.’ He had his body just in front of me as I toddled down the road. I was only about half a block down the road. They went out and got me and we all returned home.

We had Siamese cats. The mom cat was named Esmeralda. We called her Ezzie for short. She had several batches of kittens. Siamese kittens can be hard to raise. They get sick easily and they got stapf. They would get small boils from scratching each other while playing and then stapf would start. We were back and forth to the vet trying to keep them well. Some batches of kittens were very healthy and others sometimes were not. One of the batches of kittens we kept a boy kitten and a girl kitten. My mom named the boy kitten Omar Kyham and the little girl kitten Yum Yum. She loved reading English literature. Hence, the names of our cats. Esmeralda was the best mom cat. She was good to her kittens and she was a good mouser. We never had mice. My mom loved Omar. He was such a good kitty. We actually taught both cats to talk. They could meow ‘mom,’ ‘out,’ ‘down’. Siamese cats have an unusual meow.

I had so much fun with Esmeralda. I would dress her up in doll clothes and put her in a buggy and stroll her around. She was such a good sport. She hated playing ‘dress up’! I can remember this one time calling her, “Esmeralda! Esmeralda! Her kitty, kitty, kitty!’ She was hiding and I finally found her! She wasn’t too cooperative about getting dressed in a dress. Can you blame her? The indignity of having to be dressed up in a dress! What was I thinking?! She wriggled and wiggled and tried to get away, but I had a firm hand on her. She finally gave in. When I was done playing and took off the dress and bonnett, Ezzie took off and I didn’t see her for hours!

Yum Yum was an okay kitty. She had a batch of kittens but didn’t take too good care of them and he mom Ezzie raised the kittens. This is sad to say, but she wasn’t the smartest cat on the planet but she was a nice kitty. Later we gave Yum Yum away to a nice family.

Omar was my mom ‘s favorite cat! She loved that cat! It was ‘her’ cat! I was about 10 years old and we were watching some program on T.V. one evening. Whatever we were watching was funny and we were all laughing. Sometimes I would get carried away with my laughing. I would be sitting on the couch and kicking my legs up and down with my feet slapping down on the floor. Unfortunately Omar just happened to be walking along the floor in front of our couch. About that time my foot came down on the floor and right on top of Omar’s back. Smack! Oooff! He was flattened out like a pancake! I didn’t even know I had kicked him. My mother cried out, “Oh my poor Omar! You poor kitty.” She looked right at me, “You’ve killed Omar!” Nobody was laughing anymore, especially not me. I felt horrible. I hopped off the couch and wanted to pet him and my ‘whole family’ said, “Don’t touch him. You’ve hurt him enough. Get away from him!” While everybody was hovered over Omar, I slunk off to my room and didn’t come out. I felt so bad about what I did to Omar and I was crying. I also felt so bad that my family was so upset with me. I didn’t come out of my room. By this time I was throwing myself a real good pity party. I said to myself, “I’ll show them. I won’t come out of my room. I’ll starve. They care more about that cat than they do me! I don’t care if I never come out. I’ll die in my room! Humph!’ I didn’t come out of my room either.

About half an hour later, my mom came to my door to check on me. I wouldn’t talk to her. I remembered being told to “Go away.” My mom apologized and told me Omar was fine. She had rubbed his little back and was breathing and doing fine. I had just knocked the wind out of him. She did tell me to be more careful and not be quite so rambunctious with my laughing and kicking. She loved me. Well, I felt like I was accepted back into my family. I did watch myself after that. I still kicked at times when I laughed and flopped on the floor. But I also made sure Omar wasn’t under my feet. I think he stayed away from the couch after that episode. Good thing!