My First Love...

On Monday afternoon, I had to say goodbye to the first ever love of my life.  I always wanted an orange tabby and the summer after second grade, my mom called every animal shelter near our home, looking for one.  She finally found one that was 10 weeks old and had was found attached to a limb by his little pink collar.  He was skinny, sick, and the shelter didn't know if he would make it.  I didn't care; he was perfect to me.  Just like our other cats [Robin Roberts Yount, Ernie Banks, and Mr. McCovey], we decided to name him after a Baseball Hall of Famer.  I chose the name "Stan the Man" Musial.  We went to pick him up and he just crawled into my arms.  He was my Stan.  Now here's the funny part, Stan had a cellmate... a little cow cat with asymmetrical black and white markings.  We had only planned on taking Stanley, but when they opened the cage and the other cat crawled onto my dad and licked his face, we knew we had to take both.  We named that cow cat Fergie after Ferguson Jenkins and they were the best of friends.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of my Stan the Man...

Fergie and poor little sick Stan

When I studied abroad, Stan and I videochatted

17 years apart

Stan gave kisses, purred so loud that the vet could never hear his heart beat, and drank straight out of the sink.  He was the most loyal cat ever; my dad had a minor surgery a month ago and didn't leave his side for two weeks.

Goodbye, Stanley, I hope you are having just as much fun with your brother as you did when you were kittens.