Annaboo Came to Stay

 

 

 

 

Today is the anniversary of introducing a certain white cat to a new and glorious life.  It is the 3rd anniversary of Annaboo becoming that most revered of animals...the "Bookstore Kitty". 

 

Of course, she's gone now.  She's moved on to that big bookstore in the sky where every day is a new chapter and she welcomes our kitty friends who have crossed the bridge as well (way too often this year it seems) but even with all of THAT excitement going on up there, she watches down on us here on earth and is making sure that all who knew her, never forget her. 

 

She has brought more people into my life than I ever thought would be possible.  We have Annaboo as the common link and in most cases...it's holding.

 

On that Monday morning 3 years ago I was tired yet excited.  Nervous but so happy.  Boo's arrival was a couple of months in the making.  The bookstore was not 'kitty-proofed' prior to her arrival and I worked for 2 months cleaning and sorting and making it a safe place for a kitty who would live there 24/7.  Boxes towered in what was to become 'her room' and what I most wanted was a safe place for this little girl who had suffered a pretty tough life up until October 10th.  Surrender, animal shelter, rescue, foster homes, ringworm, eye-infections, a cut on the pad of her foot...the fact that I fell off a ladder preparing the bookstore for her and tore open my arm leaving a permanent scar is nothing compared to what Annaboo went through in her life.  When she returned to the rescue the last time with eyes practically swollen shut from infection I realized that I knew a place where she would be at peace.  People during the day to visit with and a quiet respite at night where she could rest and relax and regroup.  I often wish I had thought of it sooner, bringing Annaboo to the bookstore.  But, that would have changed the whole situation and being a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, she came to be with me at the exact time that I needed her.  I tell myself that anyway so that I am not saddened that I didn't bring her home when I first saw her.

 

I walked into her realm on her last Monday morning at Orphan Animal Rescue and Sanctuary and within 10 minutes Chuck & Suzy had Boo's bag packed and she was in a crate for the 1 minute drive to her new home.  It was bittersweet, as my thinking for so long had been that the place for Annaboo WAS at the rescue, making use of that last word on their name, "sanctuary".  We were all pretty used to her being there, even off and on as it was.  But two of her biggest supporters and caregivers were Chuck and Suzy (Suzy cared for 'BooAnne" when she was at the shelter) and I know absolutely that they were happy for her but yes, bittersweet is the word I would use.  Even for myself, knowing in the next few weeks that I would walk into OARS adoption center and Annaboo would not be there it was strangely odd.  She arrived a couple of months after I did as a volunteer.  She was just "always there" if she wasn't in a foster home or within a failed adoption attempt.

 

 

 

Off we went for the ride to the bookstore.  I unlocked the backdoor and set the crate down on the floor then opened the latch to watch the proceedings.  Boo did not dash out of the crate and run.  She calmly and regally stepped out, and began a walk around the entire bookstore.  I followed, some distance behind, and watched her absorb her new surroundings.  She was not scared.  She was not nervous, she didn't appear to want to leave, she didn't appear to dislike anything.  She sat at the front door looking out the glass at the traffic rushing by and then she made her rounds again. 

 

And she stayed.

 

 

 

For almost 3 years she stayed.  Why I hadn't had a bookstore kitty years and years before I will never know.  It changed my life having her there.  It changed the life of a white kitty who had gone through so much and was finally where she needed to be for what time she had left.  The fact that cancer took her way too early is the ironic fact that I will never understand.  Boo was finally happy and healthy and so enormously loved by so many that it just seemed impossible that something could grow inside of her and take her away when I still needed her by me there at the bookstore.  You can question and ask for the reasons why things happen and you just don't always get answers, but I do know that I had two and a half years with a little white kitty that I will never, ever forget.  She taught me things I didn't know I needed to learn.  I became someone I had always hoped to become but wondered if I ever would.  I am a better person, a more peaceful person, a more understanding person because of this white kitty named Annaboo. 

 

There will not be another bookstore kitty for me.  I was blessed with the one I was supposed to have and I have moved on now.  Life without a bookstore cat is not the same, that goes without saying.  The daily questions of "Where's the kitty?" have stopped and it's down to weekly questions now.  Once, maybe twice a week, I'm asked what happened to Annaboo, did I take her home?  Is she in her room?  And usually now I can tell them without tears but now and then when you see how much she meant to the person you are explaining things to, and how happy they were to walk in and find Boo watching over her bookstore domain from the countertop...I'll get tissues for both of us.   Man or woman Annaboo touched many and to say she is missed does not even BEGIN to cut it.

 

So 3 years ago this morning I left the house and my life changed.  I became the student of a small white creature who was wise beyond her years and more comforting than a warm blanket and a cup of cocoa after days out in a snowstorm.  I spent two and a half years in the presence of a little being who listened without judging, loved without conditions, and spread peace and friendship while she had the chance. 

 

Annaboo cannot be replaced.  I'm sure anyone who has ever had a pet and lost a pet will say the same thing so I am being selfish in saying that but if anyone reading this knew Boo then you will know what I mean and most likely agree.  She was one of a kind.  I still look at the door when I get to the bookstore each morning and remember her sitting there waiting for me.  Every morning.  I probably always will. 

 

 

But I will not bring in another bookstore kitty.  For several reasons, but mainly because the bookstore was Annaboo's and there is not another kitty in the world who can fill her shoes in that place.  She will be remembered and she will be missed.   And if you ask me how long I had Annaboo there with me I would have to really stop and think if I didn't have it written on the calendar hanging next to the counter because if I didn't stop and think, count back, and come up with 3 years today I would have said "Always".  She was always there somehow and she always will be.  Always.  And she will never, ever, be forgotten.