By AMY SHANKLAND
Sandwiched
I’ve wanted to write this column for a few weeks, but I needed to make certain I wouldn’t become a sobbing, sliding down-to-the-floor mess as I did so. This will be one of those times where I digress from my usual sandwich generation topics. They haven’t kicked me out of the paper yet when I do this, but I’ll still keep these instances to a minimum.
According to the National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association, 70 percent of U.S. households own a pet. I knew there were a lot of us, but … wow! So obviously, many of you reading this know how much pets add to our lives. They become part of the family. One of our pets also became a part of the neighborhood.
Our Nebelung cat, Princess, has lived outside for the past few years. For some reason, she began having litter box issues right after we installed new carpet upstairs. We tried everything to get her to stop and enlisted the help of our veterinarian. Nothing worked.
Princess LOVED being outside, so we figured, let’s make that permanent. It was a great solution. We have a fenced in yard and comfy patio furniture, which she slept on at night. During the day, she sauntered around the south side of Old Town Noblesville. I noticed she gradually created a daytime route and stopped at several houses and businesses.
We made sure she had a good flea collar and an identification tag of course. We even put “I like to roam the neighborhood and visit people. I’ll find my way home.” on the back of her tag.
Of course, as fall approached that year, we knew we had to do something so Princess would keep warm as the weather got colder. I look up pet houses on Amazon, but my husband John wouldn’t hear of it. He built custom “cat house” for her. It even matched our house. We put it on the front porch and gave it its own special address.
Princess loved visiting people all over the neighborhood and she would sit on my lap while I worked outside. I think she was incredibly happy these last few years.
After noticing how she was breathing more rapidly, we took her to the vet 3 ½ weeks ago. We were filled with dread. Princess was going on 15 years old. Our worst fears were confirmed – she had a growing tumor on her lung. With Princess only having a couple of weeks left, John and I decided to euthanize her to end her suffering.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and as I predicted, many people in the neighborhood have been asking about her, especially since we gave away the cat house. It’s comforting to know that she brought joy to not just our family, but others as well.
Noblesville Old Town’s South Side has lost its Princess. We’ll all remember her through dozens of stories and pictures for years to come.