Wilbur

This is Wilbur. SHE is a female cat and she is about 16 - 17 years old.

When my youngest daughter was little, her favorite book was "Charlotte's Web", which she read to me and I read to her and we both read together, over and over. I happen to think it is one of the most well-written books for children I have ever read (Thank goodness) because we wore one book completely out and had to get a new one which also became dog-eared, we read it so many times. And...because Rachel had Down Syndrome and I was encouraged to believe she would never be able to read, I was not going to discourage this no matter how many times we read and re-read it!

Well, Rachel got it into her head that she wanted pink pig like Wilbur in the story. We live in an apartment over our Home Center and sharing it with a pig wasn't an option. Rachel was so disappointed that her sister set out to find a replacement pet for her. So for Rachel's birthday that year, her sister gave her a kitten -as pink a kitten as she could find and Rachel promptly named her Wilbur!

There have been times over the years when I have almost wished I had opted for the pig as Wilbur has many strange personality traits. If she is happy - she bites you (and not softly, either) If a customer is writing a check up on the 50" high counter she will jump up and put her bottom in their face. She will climb a very tall tree and then be afraid to come down. She has disappeared for 10 days and we find her up 30 or 40 feet. We have had to hire a tree feller, feller to go up and get her twice! She never keeps her claws in so she leaves marks on you every time she jumps in your lap and she has flaws too numerous to mention! She is so terribly cross-eyed I don't know how she sees anything but for some odd reason, we love her.

She is Wilbur, and she is our cat.