March (?) 1993 – April 7, 2009

Almost 15 years ago, I went to the pet food store on some long-forgotten errand and came home with a cat.

It was shelter adoption day at the store, but that wasn’t on my agenda. She wasn’t the first one that caught my eye, but she was the one that held it. When I first saw her, she was in a cage by herself – this beautiful little orange-eyed orange kitty. They had her stacked on top of a cage full of young kittens and she was wistfully watching them play with some toys through the bottom of her cage. She was barely more than a kitten herself but nobody’d thought to give her a toy. She wanted one so badly …

The next thing I knew I was signing the papers and questioning my sanity.

The shelter people didn’t know how she was with dogs – or if she’d ever even seen a dog before. Just after I handed over my $20 and finalized the transaction, in walked a customer with … a sheltie! Sheltie innocently put his nose near the cardboard carrier containing my brand new kitty … kitty went hissy-ballistic and nearly clawed her way of the carrier! Oooo-kay – answered THAT question!

But a promise is a promise so nevertheless moments later I found myself putting her in my car, all the way home berating myself for being such an impulsive idiot, certain I was introducing a major source of strife into my household and consigning us all to 13-odd years of Hell …

Within an hour of letting her out in my house, I knew she was where she belonged. Rescuing Jasmine was the most wonderful, demented-impulsive thing I’ve ever done in my life.

She gave us all so much joy over the years, making friends with everyone (even Kacey!). I loved watching her sleep with and play with the dogs – first Tiffy and Sally:

… and later with Bryce, Jayda and Raven.

As you can see, once she got used to the idea she really LIKED dogs!

And how Jasmine loved to snuggle! Like a hot water bottle like feet, she was always in my lap or curled up beside me – or if I wasn’t available, she’d snuggle with Kacey or one of the dogs (if they’d have her!) I always loved sleeping in with her curled up under my chin – lulled to sleep by her mesmerizing purr.

There was also her fun-loving sense of humor. The girl just LOVED to play, and she remained playful right up until her last few months (when that awful tumor started taking over her mouth) – chasing toys (the dogs’ tennis balls were a favorite), wrestling with my shoes and my head, making “crazy cat” runs through the house or up the scratch post, playing “beast in a blanket”, doing death-defying leaps across several feet of open space from one piece of furniture to another …and knocking all my pens on the floor. How she loved to play with pens! She’d eyeball them with this mischievious little “look” on her face and send them flying.

Now I’ll always be able to find a pen… but I’ll miss her very, very much.

Note: The best pictures I have of Jasmine are of her sleeping – not because she was a lazy cat by any means, but because she LOATHED having her picture taken! At the first hint of any camera noises she would very sweetly swear at me in Cat and leave.