OSCAR SNUGGLES, KING OF TIDEWATER

OSCAR SNUGGLES, KING OF TIDEWATER
August 25, 1994 - March 5, 2010

In mid August 1994, a small young female kitty appeared at our house. We thought she might be pregnant, but we weren’t positive. She was sweet and loving and I managed to talk Hubby into letting me keep her. After all, we had an old, sick male that we had had for almost 12 years, Buster. So, we kept this sweet little female. We named her Mollie, but we call her Mollie Moo Cat, because her markings looked like a cow. She was white with gray cow marks. Soon after Mollie arrived we lost Buster of kidney disease. It was a slow, painful illness and we soon had to put him down.

It wasn’t but about two weeks before we realized Mollie must have had kittens. We scooped her up and took her to the vet to see if she had in fact delivered kittens. The vet confirmed she had and was probably finished. So the great hunt began. We looked and looked and looked for those kittens, we looked under neighbors’ decks, under out buildings, under storage sheds, we looked every where, but we never found Mollie’s kittens. We look for a solid week. We finally gave up, but I prayed, “Lord, you know we have looked every where we know to look for those kittens, so please move on Mollie to bring them to us.”

It was Labor Day weekend and we had been out on Sunday night. The house was hot when we arrived home, so we just left the back door standing open. I had gone from the kitchen into the bedroom to after something, but couldn’t remember what I went in there for, so I went back to the kitchen to try to remember what I was after in the bedroom. I looked up and Mollie ran in the back door with what appeared to be a rat, but I soon realized it was a KITTEN!!!!! She put this plump little gray kitten that was to be named Emmie Sweet Pea, down on our kitchen rug. This little thing was so tiny her eyes were still not open.

Mollie was ready to eat, by this time she was eating really well and was demanding food. So we fed her and then I put that little baby in a shoe box. Mollie soon wanted back out, to retrieve more kittens, we thought. We left the back door open most of the night. While little Sweet Pea and I “slept” on the sofa waiting for Mollie to return with her siblings. Finally, I closed and locked the door around 3:00 a.m.

I awoke suddenly after daylight, jumped up, ran and opened the back door. Mollie dashed in. She went straight to that kitten, fed her and then demanded more food for herself. In the meantime, I was off to Wal-Mart to buy a storage container to house this little family in our back hall linen closet. I had no idea how much of a mess they would make, so I wanted them contained. When I arrived home with all the gear (storage bin, litter box, litter, etc.) I inquired to Hubby about Mollie. She had wanted out and had been gone for about 30 minutes. I had unloaded the van with all the stuff and was in the process of putting a nice soft bed in that storage bin when Mollie ran in the back door again with yet another little kitten. This one was also gray, but he was not at all plump, he was skinny, frail and his fur was fuzzy looking. This little fellow was our Oscar Snuggles. We put those two little kittens over in the nice bed we had made for Mollie. She jumped over in with her two babies and never wanted out. So we concluded she had brought us her kittens, just like I had asked the Lord to do—He moved on Mollie and she brought the kittens to us.
We had Mollie about a year, but lost her out on the road. We were heartbroken, but we still had those two kittens.

Those two kittens brought us so much fun and joy. We had Emmie Sweat Pea for 12 years. She had gotten really fat and slow and a couple of the neighbor’s dogs killed her in our back yard. It was possible she had a heart attack trying to get away from them, because there were only a couple of marks on her. Again we were heart broken.

Then there was Oscar Snuggles, King of Tidewater. He was king, for sure. You know dogs have owners, but cats have staffs. That is certainly true. He had two servants that faithfully took care of him, babied him, pampered him, spoiled him rotten and he loved it. He slept with us most of the time, especially in the winter time, because he would get cold, even though we faithfully covered him up on the sofa, but he would always join us a couple hours after we went to bed.

We lost our sweet Oscar on Friday morning. I was going down the driveway on my way to my Mom’s, Hubby had taken the trash to the can and to open the gate for me. When I saw Hubby running to the road I knew it wasn’t good. Our Oscar Snuggles had to hit and killed on the road. We have had him 15 and one-half years and to our knowledge he never attempted to cross the road. We don’t know if he was chasing something or was just going to check out the other side of the road. Who knows? He had the beginning stages of kidney disease and had already exhibited symptoms of that horrible disease. I was already grieving over the fact that he was headed for a slow, painful death. It kills us that he was hit, but we are almost positive it was an instant end for him.

To say we are heart broken is an understatement. This happened Friday morning, early and I still can’t stop crying. I know this terrible hurt will heal in time, but right now it is almost too painful to bear. Sweet Oscar you will always be in our hearts, because you and Sweet Pea have left paw prints on our hearts. We love you, little Buddy Cat.