![\"Jazz-in-basket\"](\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Jazz-in-basket.jpg\")
<\/a>This was Jazz’s first picture and he was about 12 weeks old here.<\/p><\/div>For most of my life, my cats came to me the same way – strays that either found me or I found them. I called it\u00a0fate and\u00a0rarely questioned the logic of it. The minute\u00a0I\u00a0brought them into my house,\u00a0they became part of my heart and home. That changed in 1998 when I happened upon a new TV channel called “Animal Planet” and they were doing an hour long show about a breed of cat that I had never heard of before, the Ragdoll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I instantly fell head over heels in love while watching these puffy balls of furs on the TV screen\u00a0with their sweet, playful, and docile personality and decided on the spot that I must have one of my own and realized the chances of a stray coming to my door were slim, even for me, and so I hatched the not so\u00a0difficult\u00a0plot of convincing my boys that it would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift for me, which was coincidentally only a few weeks away. I also knew in order for this gift to actually come to fruition, that I would have to be the one to find the kitten, make arrangements to pick it up, and pay for it… details, details.<\/p>\n
So, not one who has much patience when it comes to getting what I want, I had to cross my fingers that someone would actually have Ragdoll kittens available and I quickly scoured the classified section under pets, because believe it or not, back then the Internet was not a part of my life. How ironic that now it is the newspaper that is not a part of my life… Anyhow, luckily for me, someone did have kittens and a short two hour drive later, there I was picking out and reserving my furry little gift from a litter of six. Because he was born\u00a0on 4\/17\/1998, he was still not old enough to leave his mother at this point, so I had to wait about a month to actually pick him up and bring him to his new furever home, which\u00a0ended up being\u00a0July 2, 1988, his official “Gotcha Day.”<\/p>\n
Now, 15 years later, I am blessed to be saying Happy Birthday to that special kitty that you all know as my beloved Jazz. Jazz is winding down in his journey with me, so everyday I have with him is cause for celebration. He has become a very distinguished and elderly mancat, hence the respectful title that we now call him, Mr. Jazz, and he is such a good boy. While his mind and body has slowed down and is showing the signs of age, he remains a loyal, loving, and devoted cat whose greatest joy is to snuggle on my chest when I watch TV at night as he purrs and hugs me with his now shrinking\u00a0bear paws. He and I have been through quite a lot together and there is not a day that he does not tell me how much he loves and adores me.<\/p>\n
The feeling is mutual buddy – I love you so much and am so grateful to be wishing you a Happy Birthday.<\/p>\n
Much love from all of us – Human Dad, Zee, Zoey, Mia, Peanut, Rolz, Harley, and Kizmet<\/p>\n