Rex

aka: RexRod,

aka : Rex-a-roni,

aka: Rexer

The best damn cat to ever live in my world!!!

We had to let Rex cross over the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday and it was a very hard thing to do, harder than I ever dreamed.  I have always thought of myself as compassionate and caring but this was an animal.  I come from a back ground where you name a chicken and then two months later you asked about “Ole Daisy” and Granny told you you ate her last Sunday for dinner!!!!  You never named anything on my uncle’s farm once you ate “Ole Daisy”! 

My Mother always had a dog.  Mostly small dogs or lap dogs as some people call them but little yappers is what me and my Dad called them!!  She went through her Great Dane Stage which was short thank goodness.

So when my lovely wife wanted to get a cat when in the early part of our lives together I had really no experience with them but knew they were much easier than dogs, so I was in.  It was 1999 and we had a dear friend Alyce who was highly allergic to cat dander.  So my wife on a business trip to Minneapolis visited a girlfriend who had Cornish Rex Cats.  They are hypo-allergenic cats!!  She was so excited came home and started looking for a breeder near us.  Well found one in Nashville went up got Rex and the rest as they say is history!  Seventeen years I shared a house with that cat and he never caused one seconds trouble.  I knew he was special but you never know how special until your wife looks up at you and says “We need to let him go”  I never would have believed the impact that statement had on me even now as I type I’m teary eyed.  For god sakes it was a cat!  Nope he was a family member and a damned important one.  I never realized until that moment that he meant so much to me.  What a treat to share a house with him.

The funniest story ever about Rex is this one:  As you know by reading this blog we entertain a great deal.  One weekend shortly after we bought him we had a dinner party on the guest list was my boss and his wife, a cat lover.  They came in and my boss saw Rex and then found out we bought him.  He states” Good God man you bought a Cat!” I said “Yes” Then my wife told him it was a Cornish Rex.  He said he thought there were only two kinds of Cats a Cat and a Calico!!  I thought my wife and his wife and me were going to die laughing!!!

My wife’s brother gave him the Rex Rod name.  He loved that cat as well.  You see everyone who met him liked him.  He was the calmest sweetest cat I have ever known. 

He slept for seventeen years on my wife chest every night, she got into bed he jumped up on the bed the covers were thrown back and he climbed into his place.  I have to believe that is going to be a very lonely place for the next couple of weeks.

This is as good of a place as any to mention Cleo.  She is our Calico Cornish Rex.  CRAZY as a bed bug, and has been forever.  She for the last four days was really nuts.  My wife and I believe now she was trying to tell us that Rex was so sick.  After the X-Rays we found out she was so right!  We got back home from the vet my wife cleaned everything and Cleo has calmed down so much it is uncanny.  She lays on my wife’s lap slept next to her last night, not on her chest, but next to her where Rex did sometimes when he got over heated.

The house isn’t the same with Rex gone.  In his later years he had slowed a great deal.  Not jumping and running all over like before more of the laid back gentlemen enjoying his golden years eating the best food and laying in the sun all day.  You know the other side of that Rainbow Bridge is beginning to look like a great place we have Ramey now Rex.  And if you believe like I believe Rex is jumping from my mom, Billie, to my wife’s mom, Bobbie’s lap back and forth. I will never forget the last time I was able to rub that cat’s head and grab his ears.  I can only hope he knows my heart has never had paw prints on it before but it sure does now. 

Rexer, miss you buddy.  Take care of Billie and Bobbie for us.  See you on the other side.

Peace,

The Blessed Man

Chickens

We were having a family dinner the other night and my adopted sister said something that really hit me.  We were talking about her daughter and a conversation they had about our extended family and how important it was to her.  Then she told her mom that she thought everyone had the same but after marriage found out that what we have is very special.

As I sat there recalling all of the wonderful times we have had together.  I realized like her daughter, that not everyone has this organization to fall back on when you need support and encouragement.  I have a dear friend from Boston that recalls he was 16 before he ever had a cookie that wasn’t homemade.  He came from a large Italian family where they all lived in the same neighborhood from grandfather and grandmother to uncles and aunts.  He had the system.  What happens when there is no large family group to circle the wagons when you need it?  Well that is when you build something special.  I am very blessed to be a part of a unit of people that do just that, from weddings to funerals to birthday parties to births we have all been there and through it all we seem to emerge a little bit closer every time.  As I sat there last night looking at the table I couldn’t help but remember when these same people held me up when I was at my weakest.  These people were there when I am my happiest like the moment we were sharing right then around a dinner table solving the world’s problems.

Her daughter finding out that not all people are blessed like us was an eye opener not only for her but for me as well.  You can’t ever give up on your people.  Maybe we don’t see each other like we did at one point but nothing will ever wavier my love and dedication to these people, my family. 

As we sat there I realized how much I miss seeing the Chickens!  You see the Chickens are my adopted sister’s kids and father.  We ate together at least 5 nights out of 7 back in Memphis.  And every time they came to my house we always got a chicken count and let me tell you the higher the chicken count the happier I was.  You see if you are a reader of this lowly blog then you know what we are talking about when I say this is a very special bunch of Chickens.  These children have social skills beyond their years, always fitting into the conversations never sitting on a couch playing with their phones, but always engaged in whatever we were talking about. 

As I write this I can only hope you have Chickens in your life.  I know I am so happy to have mine.  And the blessing is they would all be there for me just like their mom and dad would be and us for them.  You see that’s how this thing works.  If you don’t have this I am wishing it for you.  It’s not something that you can just go out and pick up.  This is something that has to grow naturally like a beautiful flower.  It is so unconditional so pure so part of a place in your heart that you really didn’t even know it was there until suddenly you are a part of it.  I am sure that in my friend’s family back in Boston it was just part of the DNA.  However, when you have to build it, it’s really special.  I simply love my extended family and never want to ever be without them or the support.

I am wishing for every single person that ever reads this you have what I am so blessed to be a part of an, extended family!!!

Guess I’ll go and check on the Chickens!!!

Peace,

The Blessed Man