Guest Star: The Holly B. Story

Hi everyone,

Please find below a story by Retro Dee:

When my cat Chelsea died, I really didn’t want another cat. For what cat could possibly compare to my very best friend of 19 years?

So I figured, I could just look at pictures of cats and read about cats and live vicariously through other people’s blogs and friends and family who have cats… But soon I went through “Kitty Withdrawal”– I needed cat companionship!

I began searching through the cat rescue listings online, when I found a small gray and white girl of about 2-3 years old looking for a permanent home. She was listed as “loves laps and enjoys being petted.” It also stated that she needed to be the only cat and needs someone to be home most of the time. This suited our family’s needs completely.

Since her humble beginnings as a barn cat and young mother of 3 kittens from Fresno, Holly has become quite the Princess. She has the house and humans all to herself, nine designated sleeping places, a cat tower and tons of cat toys. Holly’s cuteness and fondness for play has made her popular with my fellow cat-loving friends online.

Holly is named after my favorite singer, Buddy Holly (1936-1959). So it’s important that she lives up to his great image of talent. Fortunately, she does. She is bar none, the smartest cat I’ve ever seen when it comes to playing. She makes up her own games! She’ll hide her toys under something, or beneath the rung of a chair so that she can challenge herself to attack them at different angles, or dig them out like a puzzle.

When we first got her, she used to play fetch with herself! She’d drop her baby blue mouse off the edge of the second floor down into the stairs below. Then she’d run down, retrieve the mouse and do it all over again!

I finally got her one of those 3-tiered cat tracks and a cat tunnel for Christmas! She has an absolute field day with them! But playing with them in a conventional way was not interesting enough: she had to combine the two toys to make one big toy (yes, she did this herself, I did not set it up that way for her) She runs through the tunnel and attacks the ball tower. Sometimes she even sits in the opening of the tunnel and reaches out and plays with the balls at the same time. I call it “tunnelball”!

Holly has been with us for two years now, and the amount of fun and laughter that she’s brought into our lives is immeasurable. She’s more than just a pretty face, too. She’s amazing!