Goodbye to Milly, last of my parents' cat herd

This morning my parents' cat Milly passed away. She was very old, we think at least 17, and we knew she was on her way out for a while now. She wasn't in any pain and went to sleep and just drifted away, which is the best possible thing to wish for. She lived a good and long life and loved and was loved.

She showed up at our back door when I was about 12 or 13, just skin and bones and purrs. She looked to be just over a year or so old at that point. She never meowed, she said something I can only transliterate as "nyeng," and she said it so softly you couldn't hear her through the glass door, just see her mouth move. We had a cat inside already, Trouble, but my parents can never resist feeding hungry creatures. She was so friendly and obviously used to people that I think someone abandoned her in the woods behind my house, but I have never seen a cat that was a worse hunter. I named her Milly because she looked like one, and because the word Milly looked like her, with the points of the "M" her ears and the "y" her tail. My dad made her a nest on the porch and she was our outside cat for a while until one day we saw that she was leaving a trail of blood. We grabbed her and took her to the vet, and as he palpitated her stomach a dead kitten slipped out of her. I grabbed my little sister and pulled her out of the room, knowing we didn't need to see any more then. The vet said that the kittens died because she was so thin she couldn't support them. She was spayed and got all of her shots and when we brought her home, she was an inside cat.

She and Trouble (was the least amount of trouble of any cat I've known) got along fantastically, though Milly was one of the dumbest cats I've ever seen. Very sweet, but dumb as a rock. She used to get her head stuck in the kitchen chairs, and would jump up on the table onto papers and go sliding across and boom! fall right onto the floor. She loved people food, and would climb up your body for a chicken cheesesteak.

She gained weight for a few years until my older sister moved back home and brought her two cats, Frenzy and Sunshine (the Kitten), with her. Kitten and Milly took one look at each other and a lifetime feud was born. The torn part of Kitten's ear is from fighting with her, and she got Milly back too. Frenzy would defend Kitten and they'd wage very loud wars throughout the house, which were dangerous to interrupt. That's one of the reasons I took Kitten to live with me, mostly because she was such my cat but also because ever after years living together they never got along.

Milly started as kind of my mom's cat, I think, but for the last few years she's been attached to my dad. He has that quality which makes him irresistible to children and animals, he just seems to exude safety and peace. The pic above is her helping him on the computer, as you can see she's very helpful.

Frenzy passed away a few years ago, and now with Milly gone I'm not sure what my parents will do. They have an outside cat, a very friendly marmalade they call Cliffy, but he seems so happy outside I'm not sure they'll bring him in. It does seem hard for them to be without any little furry things around, though.

Some more pics I found when looking for the ones of Mookie. Her sleeping in a box

Trouble being a roundcat

Kitten in a sink

My sister's mini dachshund Toast with pink ribbons on her ears

Frenzy and my dad. He was sitting there and she just climbed up him until she found the spot where she wanted to be. She looks so sweet and innocent here.

It's December, somehow

So Ben and I are celebrating Christmas 3 times this year, once last weekend with his family, on Dec. 26th with my family, and by ourselves when we get home after that trip to NJ. We went up to see his family for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and I got him, modestly speaking, the coolest gift ever.

These are dice modeled on the Deathly Hallows symbol from Harry Potter printed on a 3D printer in bronze. How much more awesome could fit into a sentence?! They're from Shapeways, which is a fantastic site where you can upload 3D models of things and choose a material to have them printed in, or use other people's models.

They are probably not actually usable in a game, I didn't see the model creator say anything about trying to make them actually balanced, but the numbers are distributed correctly and they have a very satisfying *thunk* when you roll them. They're heavy and feel solid in your hand, too.

It was a good thing we decided to give each other gifts at each Christmas this year instead of waiting, I could barely stand to wait this long to give them to him, and he loves them!

The rest of our trip to NE was good, saw his family and friends and all. We went over to Iowa for Thanksgiving and saw most of his cousins and their kids, it was a good trip. For Christmas his parents gave me very warm slippers and a kit to knit a really pretty purse. And we managed to fit everything in our suitcases, yay! It was cold enough to wear my knitted sweater a few times and it got lots of compliments, it's very warm and cozy!

I saw these adorable knitting bags on Etsy and added them to my Christmas list and waited like 10 minutes, but no one bought them for me and I was afraid they'd be sold to someone else and there was only one of each and so I bought myself an early Christmas present :) How insanely cute are these?!