Life of a Middle-Aged Student: Smokie’s Kitten: A Fun Memory

Welcome to My Bumpy Ride.......

Before you all read on, I guess it is best to introduce myself to you and let you know a bit about myself. I am Susan, and first and foremost, I am a mother to a wonderful young man. Though he is grown, he will always be that three year old little boy, that asked all those questions and expected answers to them all. Though I will tell you much about myself in this blog there is no one or nothing that is as important to me as him, even if I don't discuss him much, because he kina likes to remain private.

For years I was actively trying to find myself, but that was a big waste of time, since by doing so I was not living. All my life I have always known that I was "different", but was unable to know why that was. I first thought that perhaps it was because I was adopted, but that was not the case. Turns out, I am bipolar and pretty much have been all my life. This was explained to me about nine years ago when I had a major melt down. I tend to be more on the depressive side, but have on occasion been quite manic. My last episode was early thru mid 2008, with full blown depression. For five months, I bearly left my house, let alone my bed. Why am I telling you this? I just want it out in the open and let you understand that I discuss my illness from time to time.

Present day, I am currently a full time student, studying social work. At the end of 2011 I was approached by a mentor of mine, who mentioned a new program that was going to launch here in Rhode Island. This new program called the Peer Wellness Coaching, was something that I had always wished would become a reality and to add even more excitement was the fact that this mentor was inviting me to train for a position as one of the Peer Wellness Coaches.

So currently (spring 2012) I am part of the three phases of training and should be employed by the fall of 2012. What is even more excellent about this program is that they are aware of my education goals and are willing to work with me on maintaining those goals.

Also you might hear me mention NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), because I am actively involved with them. I am a facilitator and state trainer for the NAMI Connection groups (peer run support group) here in Rhode Island, and I also help teach high school and college students about mental illness through NAMI RI's Inside Mental Illness program.

So with all that being said...I hope you read on to my daily activities and thoughts and such.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Smokie’s Kitten: A Fun Memory - Warning...Pet Story

Last chance to ditch!

My sister Tammy had always wanted a Persian cat and my parents got her a female one we called Smokie. Now honestly I seriously don’t remember getting the cat, but I sure remember her kitten, so this story will be about that kitten that we named Ugly.

We all knew when Smokie was in heat, because she would meow so friggin loud and it sounded just like she was screaming, “I wanna go out!” Well apparently she must have gotten out and had some fun with Grandpa (a cat that wondered its way to our house before Smokie came to us).

I remember one night we were watching Wild Kingdom and out of the blue my mom questioned about how long it was since we heard Smokie screaming. I remember that Tammy went and got her and she gave my dad a look like, “oh no.” Dad was always for adding new furry friends to our already bursting furry family members, but it was mom that the “oh no” was for. Mom was forever wincing each time we brought in a new furry member. Mom actually took it pretty well and soon enough it was delivery day.

Smokie didn’t know what to do with her kittens as she walked everywhere dropping them out of her where ever they landed. This of course was the straw with my mom. Tammy was quick on the draw though. She tried as quickly as she could to rescue all four of the kittens, but sadly only one made it, and that was Ugly.

When Ugly started to look like a kitten it was quite noticeable that this kitten was plain old ugly, so my brother Tommy decided that would be her name. She had the flat nose like a Persian but was a full Calico like Grandpa. Her face was black, brown, grey and white. There was real color to her. She had her mother’s bluish look, but only mixed in with all the other colors that her father had. But honestly, she was so ugly she was adorable.

As Ugly grew she became so playful and a true joy to have around. As much as Tammy tried to teach Smokie to take care of the kitten, Smokie never took to it, and Tammy became her mother. Each night when all of us went to sleep we had animals sharing the beds with us. Tammy had the most, with Inkie her beagle, Smokie and Ugly. I had my Koko a mutt that I have shared about in this blog somewhere. And my brother had the cat from hell named Marsha (Anyone have a clue where that name came from. Oh and one day I will tell you all about the cat from hell who would never go away).

Anyways as Ugly grew older she began to wander during the night and sometimes we could not find her. Many times we would find her in shoes, boxes and (her favorite) purses. We began to stop looking because she always came out when she was hungry.

Well one morning we woke up and didn’t see her. Mom was in a major hurry and said good bye and grabbed her briefcase and purse and ran out the door. (In case you don’t remember or know, the purses in the ‘70’s were huge!)

We started to get concerned around afternoon about the kitten and it was at that time that mom called from work. She asked if we were missing anything and right away Tommy (he answered the phone) said that we had been looking everywhere for Ugly. I remember that he started to laugh major and Tammy and I looked at each other because we knew exactly where Ugly was at that moment, with mom at the office!

This is how mom told the story about what happened at the office. She was late for a meeting and dropped her purse in her office and ran out the door. All during the day she heard chatter from outside about a kitten that was roaming around. Finally she stepped out to find her secretary with Ugly in her arms. Mom had said that she could not believe that Ugly didn’t come out in the half hour long car ride or even made a sound.

We heard about this story from mom employees for years and each time it was a huge laugh, even bigger, because that was the day that Ugly found a new home. Honestly if I had not seen mom leave that day, I would have sworn that she planned it, but I know she didn’t.

Below are some pictures of the pets that I mentioned in this blog. Sorry but there are no pictures of Ugly, because she just wasn’t around long enough, sadly like many of our part-time pets. Someday I will write about how those came to be as well. TTFN