{"id":7512,"date":"2012-10-04T06:50:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T10:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=7512"},"modified":"2012-10-03T19:30:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T23:30:46","slug":"october-4th-the-feast-of-st-francis-and-a-tribute-to-my-miracle-cat-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/october-4th-the-feast-of-st-francis-and-a-tribute-to-my-miracle-cat-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"October 4th – The Feast of St. Francis and a Tribute to my Miracle Cat, Kit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While this popular shirt that Jackson Galaxy is wearing might be trendy, the fact that men love cats is nothing new to me.<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t like to use the word, trend, because it implies something elusive that is happening at the moment, with an expiration date just waiting for the next fad to replace it. So, to some, the increase of the male presence in the cat world might seem like a trend, but I believe in fact, that men have been involved in the care and loving of cats far longer than mainstream ideology would tell and that we are just becoming more aware of it now. I do not believe that one day we will wake up to find people such as Jackson Galaxy<\/a> of My Cat From Hell, Kent Butler of Catnip Chronicles<\/a>, Terry Frum of Brian\u2019s Home<\/a>, Kevin Hattori of Animal Shelter Volunteer Life<\/a>, multi-award winning pet expert, Steve Dale<\/a>, and Peter Wolf of Vox Felina<\/a> finding cats to no longer be relevant or integral to their lives.<\/p>\n

Another man with a strong passion and caring for cats is a dear friend of mine, Michael Ostrofsky of Five Pet Place<\/a>. I had met Michael early in the year via social networking when we were trying to save the Loews outdoor cats residing on the Universal hotel properties in Orlando and I met him in person at BlogPaws<\/a>. A man with boundless energy, talent, and vision, he created Five Pet Place to provide cat guardians a line of high-quality and exquisitely designed cat products such as scratching posts, window beds, and water\/food servers. But, more than that, he understands the spiritual connection we have with our beloved feline companions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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I was part of an outdoor Pet Blessing last year (can you spot me?) and as you can see, cats are not part of the audience!<\/p><\/div>\n

October 4th is \u201cThe Feast of St. Francis\u201d where animals are blessed at ceremonies held in churches around the world and Michael realized that rounding up our cats and taking them to church is all but impossible, so he had a blessing written for them and created a free email service<\/a> with a special prayer that can be shared with you and your pets. I was reminded of this the other day when I stopped by one of my favorite blogs, Cat Chat<\/a>, and saw that Michael was featured as a guest blogger about this subject. So many of the comments to his post were so thankful for this service, but also were about the powers of faith and the miracles that often occur with our pets who are in need.<\/p>\n

While I am not necessarily an overly religious person, I do believe very strongly in the powers of faith, spirituality, positive energy, and channeling love for healing. So, as tribute to this blessing and the miracles of healing, I would like to dedicate today’s post to my beloved tabby cat, Kit. Her time on this earth seemed destined to end at 15 years of age but apparently she had other ideas\u2026<\/p>\n

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This was Kit perched atop our front door sometime in the 1990's. Clearly this is not an award winning photo...<\/p><\/div>\n

Kit appeared in my driveway out of thin air one cold fall day in Upstate New York and she seemed to be about 9 months old. I was already the Elly May of our family and our house was busting at the seams with fur, feathers, and scales. My then husband, Bill, had me on strict orders \u2013 NO MORE STRAYS \u2013 as if I asked these animals to come find me\u2026 Well, the long and short of it, Kit did stay and not only did she make the move to the home I am in today in Florida with Dan, she also outlasted my marriage and shared many a milestone moment in my life and is the impetus for the journey I share with Zee and Zoey and my life as a cat advocate. (You can read all about Kit, her connection to Zee and Zoey, and all the other animals in my life in more detail in my book, The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey<\/a>).<\/p>\n

There eventually came that inevitable moment that many a pet lover can relate to and I knew my time on earth with her was nearing an end. I said my goodbyes to her as best I could and with what I was certain would be her last night with me, I put a blanket and pillow on the floor and laid next to her so that she would have my warmth, love, and companionship as she moved on.<\/p>\n

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Kit loved looking out the window at all the birds and lizards that would wander by. This is one of the last times she was on the sill before she passed on.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I woke up in the morning, I was paralyzed with the fear of having to deal with reality, but Kit was already up\u2026 fit as a fiddle and looking like a cat half her age! Miracle. Absolutely. I was graced with Kit\u2019s company for three more years and when we finally did have to let her go, Dan and I were with her for her final moments and she literally seemed to tell us with her eyes that she knew we loved her, but that we had to let her go, and that it was okay to do it.<\/p>\n

So, I allow myself a cry as I remember her and I also thank her for showing up in my driveway that fall day so many years ago\u2026 and now that I think about it, it very well could have been October 4th that she came to me. Fate and destiny being what it is, I would not be surprised at all.<\/p>\n

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This lovely tribute of Kit was done for me by my step-daughter, Crystal<\/p><\/div>\n

What about you? Any miracle stories about your pets?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t like to use the word, trend, because it implies something elusive that is happening at the moment, with an expiration date just waiting for the next fad to replace it. So, to some, the increase of the male presence in the cat world might seem like a trend, but I believe in fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[1265,457,456,455,1266],"class_list":["post-7512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-blogging-writing","category-inspiration-healing","tag-cats","tag-five-pet-place","tag-kit","tag-pet-blessing","tag-the-chronicles-of-zee-and-zoey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Kit-on-windowsill.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7512"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7525,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7512\/revisions\/7525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}