How It All Began

My name is Denise.  When I was a kid I hated my name.  I thought it was boring.  Plus I had this uncle that would ask me where is de-nephew?  For years...every time I saw him!  When I got older, I decided I like my name.  It is unique and I hardly ever meet anyone else named Denise.  Then came the Key & Peele sketch and it became De-Nice. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.  It is hilarious but the joke gets real old and I am not that clever. I need a good comeback, any ideas?

But this blog isn’t about me.  It is about my babies.  They are my cats, Declan and Shay.  They came into my life when I was going through a rough time.  I had just sold my dream home, which I loved dearly, after a divorce and job change which made the move inevitable.  I went from a beautiful, modern, light filled, corner loft in downtown Chicago to a not so nice but cheaper apartment in an old house.  It was somewhat charming but old and creaky and the thermostat didn’t work so it was either way too cold or way too hot.  

I was never a cat person growing up but when I finished college and got into the real world I really wanted a pet.  My first apartment didn’t allow them so I got a kitten who was tiny and quiet and perfect and they never knew.  That was Jezabelle.  She only lived to be eight years old and then she had a mass in her stomach.  When they did an invasive procedure to see if it was cancer, they found another tumor in her lung.  It was very sad to lose her and about that same time my marriage was falling apart.  A few months later my ex husband moved out and I still joke that he would have left sooner but he couldn’t leave Jezabelle.  I, on the other hand, was expendable.  

So I was having a difficult time when I moved into my new crappy apartment and I didn’t feel ready to get a new cat.  Jezabelle couldn’t be replaced and the thought of a new pet meant I would have to go through a death again.  Then my therapist convinced me to foster.  I found a local shelter that only served cats.  I went through an orientation and filled out an application.  It was only a couple weeks later I got a call that two kittens had been found alone in a park.  They had ear mites and were too little to go into the shelter yet.  So I went to get these little orphans to give them care until their ears were healthy and they were big and strong.  I was NOT keeping them.  

They were the tiniest, cutest little things I had ever seen.  They cuddled together in the back of a crate.  I opened the door and layed down on the floor to get a good look.  That did not make them want to come out.  So I left the door open and waited.  

Oh, and their names were Dalek and Tardis.  What the hell? I know now that these are names from Dr. Who but these cats did not look like a Dalek or a Tardis and I couldn’t tell which one was which.  Looking back, this was probably my first mistake.  I decided I wasn’t going to call them those names.  I was going to come up with something else.  The little girl would be Shay.  I had seen The Descendents a few months before and that was the first time I heard of Shailene Woodley.  I loved that name.  So little Tardis became Shay (as long as I could figure out which one she was.)

They really didn’t look alike.  One was white and one was orange.  I expected them to look more similar.  So I fugred out Shay was the white one but then what would I call the orange boy?  It took several days before I decided.  I was testing things out but sometimes still calling him Dalek.  One day I was walking down the street and I saw a sign that said “For Rent: Call Declan” I think because it sounded somewhat similar but had a completely different meaning to me, it made sense.  Now they have new names.  But I still was NOT keeping them.  

Spoiler Alert!  That was June 2012.  They have lived in 4 different states, countless homes and led me to the journey of learning how to communicate with animals.  This blog is the story of that journey.