For Mandy

Today is a sad day. My mom had to make the decision to have the family pet, Mandy, for the past 13 years put to sleep. We got her when I was in 7th grade. It's always a tough call with pets. You want to do whatever you can to keep them with you as long as you can, but after having a $4000 dog, it's just not practical. You can see in the picture that she had a cataract and had for a long time. I'm not sure of the details, but they wanted to remove her eye (mandy had been acting like she was in pain this week), and my mother just didn't want to put her through that. I don't blame her. Anyway, enough sad stuff. On to why she was a "cool cat"...

I actually like cats much more than dogs. They're not needy. They really don't have to follow you or even be with you at all if they don't want to. They don't LICK you or jump on you. They don't bark. They really only need you when THEY want something. If they want attention, it has to be their idea. Travis has always said that I am like a cat, haha. Mandy was pretty selective. She loved you or hated you. She kind of held a grudge against me when I moved to Alabama. She hated Sage when she was born, but later got over that. When Sage was not even a year old, I could hear her in my mom's kitchen laughing as hard as she could. When I walked in, Mandy was in the kitchen chair hitting Sage in the face with her paw (she was declawed). It was so funny. MANDY didn't think it was, but we did.

Mandy never got over hating Travis. She hissed every time he walked through the room. Every morning, she expected fresh water with ice cubes in it. At least my dad said she preferred ice. She loved bread, and if you left a sandwich laying around, you'd lose it. When I was younger and in school, I used to sing at the top of my lungs when I was home alone. Mandy would come flying in the room and attack me until I stopped. It was pretty hysterical, and she would STILL do that if I came there and sang. She liked my brother more than anyone and whenever he got home, you could hear Mandy telling him some kind of story with the nonstop meows. She never grew too old to chase the light a passing car would reflect on the walls or to run at the light of a flashlight around and around in circles. Sage loved to do that with her. It's tough when animals leave, but the stories you get with them outweigh the sad time at the end. You'll be missed, Mandy. ♥