“Animals are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.” – George Eliot

Is there anything better than the unconditional love of a small furry animal? They’re cute, sweet, and love you whether or not it’s deserved. During my parents’ marriage, they’ve had 3 animals. I’ve been lucky enough to know all three.

Their first pet was a dog named Molly. She was born on September 11, 1977. She was the offspring of my parents upstairs neighbors at a boarding school where my dad taught and coached. My dad was taking care of Beanie (Molly’s mom), when she started giving birth. My dad went over to Beanie to help her when a puppy fell into his hand. That puppy was my parents’ first fur child and the first pet I ever knew. She was great, but I never got to know her until the last week of her life. She passed on when I was 3, and up until that point, we were the same height. Her friendly and strong tail could land me on my tush in seconds.

Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Molly, she loved me anyway. She loved my brother, too, who came along first. In fact, once when he was being babysat, Molly sat outside his room and growled at the babysitter every time she tried to go in. When he started to cry, Molly came and got the babysitter since she couldn’t comfort him.

Molly used to run faster than anything I’d ever seen. Actually, even though she wasn’t running at me, it used to scare me. We lived next door to the school where my dad taught, and my dad used to walk her down to the football field to let her run. I used to beg to be picked up to avoid getting run over.

Molly passed away on April 22, 1991. Even though I was only three, I still remember watching my dad come back from the vet after she had been put down. His face was red, and I remember watching my mom rush out the door to greet him. They both stood on our front walk crying and hugging. Losing a pet is the worst.

It was 7 years before we got another pet. We toyed around with a lot of options. We thought about getting a dog and a cat, two cats, a cat… In April of 1998, we went down to the SPCA to look at cats. There were several that we liked, but there was one sweet tabby that caught our eye. When we met her in the visiting room, she casually hopped up onto the bench the four of us were sitting on, crawled over us and finally curled up and went to sleep in my dad’s lap. We were in love.

We immediately adopted her and changed her name from Pumpkin to Flossie. My great-grandmother’s name was Florence Leona Strong (also where my middle name comes from), and she was called “Flossie.” We decided it was the perfect name for this sweet little kitten.

Flossie had been taken from her mother too early and needed to be fed from a bottle and still had to have shots and had to be spayed. We got to take her home in June when she was just 6 months old. I can’t begin to express how much I adored this kitten. I held her every chance I got, I carried her around the house, and she slept on my bed every night. She loved curling up and napping in my lap, and any time I called her, she would come running.

During my sophomore year of high school, I had to have surgery. When I came home and had to stay in bed for two weeks, Flossie left my room only for food, water, and the litter box. Other than that, she was on my bed at all times of the day or night. It was her job to take care of me.

Leaving her when I left for college was sad for me. When I came home, Flossie used to punish me by ignoring me. A couple of times, I was home so shortly, that she ended up avoiding me for my whole visit. She learned her lesson and would still punish me but would forgive me after about an hour.

She got used to being my parents’ cat without me and used to sleep on their bed (often between them) every night. When she would decide it was bedtime, she would come out and meow at them to go to bed so she could curl up in the crook of my mom’s knees.

Flossie passed away on September 19, 2017. Had she made it to January, she would have been 20 years old. The day before she passed on, my parents and I took turns holding her, and my parents cradled her between them one last time. She passed on in my mom’s arms the next day and she was buried in my parents’ garden.

A year went by, and my parents stayed pet-less. Then at the end of 2018, an email went out to my parents’ neighborhood saying that a sweet black cat had been found and was unclaimed. She had been roaming the neighborhood and sat at the window of their neighbor’s house one cold night begging to be let in. No one had claimed her, and the couple who had found her couldn’t keep her because of pets they already had.

The second my parents saw her sweet picture, they went and visited her and immediately fell in love. We were watching large amounts of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel at the time, and we decided to name her Maisie. She came home with my parents on January 1, 2019. We’re not sure when she was born, but the vet guessed she was about 2 years old.

Maisie is such a different kitty from Flossie. If you follow me on Instagram or are friends with me on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen her grace the page a time or two. She’s skittish, but she does her petly duty of loving her owners.

I’ve been staying with my parents for a few months, and a couple months ago, I was having a bad day. I went into the living room where Maisie was curled up asleep on the couch. At the time, I was crying. Maisie looked up at me, deciding whether or not she wanted to make a dash for the door. When she saw me crying, she put her head back down and closed her eyes. I scratched her soft black head, and she began to purr softly. Hearing this sweet animal loving me instantly made me feel better.

I’m so grateful for every pet we’ve had. Each has been such an integral and important member of our family. Pets have a way of becoming a part of you and making your life more meaningful and memorable. They’re sweet and loving and always have your back. I know cats often get a bad rep because they’re high maintenance, but they can be so sweet and loving. There’s nothing like holding a tiny kitten that purrs so much that its whole little body vibrates with love. Honestly, if we paid better attention, we could probably treat each other better. The world only needs more love, and pets existence only brings more of it.