[Renae Bettenhausen]

I have belonged to another cat bullitin board, Absolute Best Cat for @8 years now. It is a small group of about 30, mostly older, very accomplished professional women, and our cats. that BB is not nearly as big, or elaborate as CW. The only RULE there is "be kind, or leave." Over the years the members of ABC have developed deep enduring friendships, and we have deeply grieved those members who have gone to the Rainbow Bridge, both the fured and the furless

About a month ago we lost our Senior Curmudgeon First Class Chuck Standart from respiratory failure. He was a key member of out little group, and had been part of it from the group's beginning, from the days when ABC was on Prodigy. He and his Wife, Linda, at one point had 12 cats, but HIS cat was a tortie girl named Miss Cleo. They had a very special bond. Linda sometimes complained the Miss Cleo got kissed before she did when Chuck came home from work. Those who know much about me know that I also have a tortie girl named Miss Cleo, who is my HUSBAND'S cat, except when ther's food involved. MY Miss Cleo was named Miss Cleo 4 years before I knew there was a cat who could be her mirror image that was also named Miss Cleo. But Miss Cleo S was 10 years older than my Miss Cleo B

Miss Cleo S started "going down hill" the day Chuck first went into the hospital for respiratory failure in Sepember. She rallied when he ralliedYou can imagine what Linda's life was like, a sick husband, and a sick cat. Chuck passed away @ Oct 15. Miss Cleo hunted for him and called for him daily, and got sicker and sicker. Last night she started haveing siezures, and this morning she crossed the Rainbow bridge in Linda's arms just afte she gave Linda on last kiss. She was "only 19"

How wonderful and how terrible that a little cat loves so deeply and would need her "Daddy what loves her" so much that she would die of a broken heart. I imagine Chuck and Cleo are sharing a bowl of Ice Creamies" but Oh Linda's heart is breaking all over again, to first loose the only man she ever loved, and shared her life with for 52 years, and now to loose his cat, so soon.

Tonight, please say a little prayer for Linda, and for the person you have loved for most of your life, and for the little sweethearts that love us more deeply than we know, the cat's whos brains have a part for emotions that so similar to our own.

Renae


No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch. - Leo Dworken

[CatsRU]

Please give Linda my deepest sympathy and RIP Miss Cleo - you will be sorely missed.

[Linda K]

that is so moving, that his little cat loved him so much (reminds me of Greyfriars Bobby), and how sad for poor Linda - let her know we are thinking of her, and her loss at such an awful time.

[Avalon]

So sad, the bond they form with is us unbreakable, and there will always be a magical cord that attaches us together. I am very sorry for Linda's loss so please send her my sincere condolences, with many hugs accorss the miles
Kindest regards
Cherie

[Tobkah]

aww that is so sad (((hugs)))

[oriental cats]

RIP Miss Cleo, how blessed to have been so loved.
Please past on our love to her mum.
How much celebration at the Bridge as her and her dad meet again.
Sue and the Sklinkies
XO

[smudgewillow]

What a poignant story...

Poor Linda... please pass on a cyber hug from me!!!!!

[Renae Bettenhausen]

An update:
Last week Linda wrote that on her way home from workthere had beed a particularly bright star in front of her, then realized there was also a very tiny, but unmistakeable little star beside it. A message from Chuck, and Cleo? Binary stars are almost never visable to the naked eye, and yet, there it was... The two of them, together, watching over her?

At ABC many of us report "Something" that very much seems to be a message from our loved ones, our cats. When Linda, a pilot, lost Coco Copilot she saw an unusually magnificent double rainbow. When Judy, a librarian in Portland lost Dewy, she also reported seing a rainbow, and though rainbows in Portland Ore may not seem unusual, there was someting I can't remember right at this moment that was unusual about it. Since Chuck was a retired navy pilot, and was always intrested in astronomy, of course Linda will alaways think of Chuck when she sees the stars, but it is almost never that you see a very bright star and another smaller star next to it. I am encouraging Linda to believe that it IS chuck, and Miss Cleo, watching over her

Thank you for your prayers for my friend, she feels them and apreciates them

Renae