The Story of Sir Laredo Bam Bini

  It has been a year today since my precious boy passed away and so it is time to tell his story. I had 13 wonderful years with him and although he had his quirks like an insatiable appetite for plastic and Parmesan cheese I loved every minute of it.
  The first part of this story is taken from the original story I wrote in 2001 after I found him and is about how he got his  formal name and I am leaving it the original way I wrote it then with the original title :

**Be careful what you pray for because you’ll always get what you really need

           I had been kind of down the past month of May mainly due to my car situation. It seems that Ester Lou, my 92 Geo Metro, is ready for car heaven. With my prospects for financing looking grim, it is a big concern to me. So I have been praying for a car.

            Them, on Wednesday May 30th, I opened my door to go down and put my laundry in the dryer. There in the hall stands this tiny little adorable kitten. I don’t know where he came from; I had overheard someone talking in the hallway earlier and think they must have dropped him off there. I yell for Timothy and within minutes kitten is inside our apartment, of course Timothy is instantly in love with him.

            I immediately looked up and said “Lord I said car not cat.” Could He have misunderstood me? Was His hearing as bad as mine I wondered? I knew of course that this was not the case, God always knows what He’s doing better than I do.

            I tried to be standoffish at first, adamant that we were not going to keep her. However God knows my heart better than that, slowly and surely he was winding his little ball of fur around my soul.

            Of course he is a little monster. Tearing all over the place and biting everything in sight-teething we think. When he finally gets exhausted, he plops down on top of you purring his little heart out.

            So what could I do but keep him, after all God had put him right in from of my door so there must be a reason for it.

            And his name? Why its Laredo of course. A current Country single about a guy trying to win back his girl.

Oh oh Laredo

Don’t let her go

Just take her by the heart

And let the wheels turn slow

Oh oh Laredo

You’re my only hope

Just get her back

To the day we met, cause

That’s as far as she needs to get

            And so he is my Laredo- restoring my soul with faith, hope, joy, and peace. Thank you God for giving me what you knew I needed most.

            And to that poor lost soul who left her in my hallway-you are forgiven. Although you may not have had the best of intentions, God always does. Go in peace!

  So there he was, a kitten named Laredo that I tried very hard not to love at first. Having just separated the year before and being in the midst of a divorce I didn't want to let anything into my heart . But I couldn't help myself, after all I am a lover of all things animal. And so into the apartment he came and he would make it his domain. And the Bam Bini, Italian for baby , influenced by the 3 years we lived there and he was most definitely mine  He was also called Bam Bam by his vets as they thought he was named after the Flintstones character. But a royal cat he was and with much character to boot.

   After finding him in the hallway, I heard from neighbors that people in the other building connected to mine had been evicted for breeding cats that same day. So that explained where he had come from but why did they leave only him. And then the first time my cousin saw him she said you have a cat there I have seen at cat shows, a Turkish Van. So I read everything I could on this breed and he was a perfect match except for one thing. The breed standard is an all white body with a colored tail & coloring on the head. But Bam Bini also had 3 colored spots on his body. And although I saw several photos of Vans with colored body spots I think the breeders thought he would be less valuable and that is why he was dropped in my hallway. He had no undercoat but had a much thicker winter coat which he would shed in the Spring. He also had a fondness for water and did not mind getting wet and always much preferred drinking from the sink. And he grew into that magnificent tail, the large breed cat he surely was.

   He was never big on toys but he loved a couple, one being a golf ball he played with only in the bathroom. I would wake up hear him playing golf at night. And the other being a  spider toy I found,. He actually pulled all 6 legs off the first one and I think I bought two more. He grew up with my Diamond dove pair and I trained him not to get on their cage with a cafeteria tray that would tip if he stepped on it. Tim taught him two things he never forgot, first to open the balcony screen door with his paw if he wanted to come in and 2nd, when he shook the coin purse of quarters it was time to race down three flights of stairs to the laundry room. The only problem was getting him to come back up the stairs. He wasn't the most affectionate of cats but he did like to be scratched behind his ears. And lapsitting required caution since he might just decide to bite after a few minutes. But I loved him with all of my heart.
   There were  a couple of scares over the years like the time he ate rubber bands & we nearly lost him. But the vet was able to flush his stomach and saved him. I never allowed another rubber band in the apartment. And he got very sick after grabbing a huge hunk of cheese off the table and trying to eat it all at once which required meds from the vet. But he was a generally healthy cat up until the end albeit he had litter box issues from time to time. It was difficult watching him decline in his last year. His appetite just wasn't what it once was and he lost a lot of weight. I took him up to the vets at one point thinking it was time but they wanted to try a couple more treatments. Unfortunately that did not help and the vet thought he probably had cancer in his gut somewhere. And so I took him back to the vet and stroked him gently as he crossed over the Bridge. They were very kind and let me stay with him as long as I wanted. I had him cremated and now his ashes are in a beautiful wooden box. I made a special photo album of pictures of him throughout the years. I will never forget this special cat that came into my life at just the right time and I know someday he will be waiting for me.

Editors Note: This story was originally written August 1,2015

Peace*Love*Community

Dear MOD’s,

Thank you for giving me the time off I needed this past week. During those days I read and saw much on Facebook both good and bad. And it became clear in my head and my heart what direction I needed to take with this group. I created this group almost 6 years ago because I was removed from another owl group after speaking up in defense of others. I needed a place to go and a place others could go as well. A place of refuge. I said I would allow anyone to join the group as long as they followed my only rule which was to be nice to each other. It was difficult at first, there were friends of mine that refused to join because I had allowed someone they didn’t like join the group. But I persisted and I kept my word. And the group grew. It started out with MOD’s I knew from the social stream, then MOD’s from chat & SPO joined as well. As time went on friends new to owls also joined. A group of people bound together by their love for owls. During these nearly 6 years there have only been 2 times I’ve had to remove someone because they weren’t following my rule which I think is a pretty good record. I admit the farther away we’ve gotten from those Molly & McGee days the harder it has seemed to keep the group going. Groups have become very popular in the last few years and I think people often get overwhelmed by them. But I have persisted even as seems at times there are very few of the 300 plus members interested. Last fall at the International MOD Meet in Minneapolis I met my friend Sylvia Oey and she asked me why I kept the group going. I believe my reason today is the same as I told her then. If I managed to make just one person’s day by making them laugh or smile or get their mind off all those other things out there then it was worth it. Yes it can be a lot of work at times and sometimes I get discouraged. Take the latest fall coloring contest for example, I gave a month and a half to enter thinking that would create more entries and yet there were only 5. I admit I was disappointed and I still owe the winners their prizes. I considered whether it was time to end the group after that and then I heard about Susan Shepler Blum, who was a group member and had committed suicide. She had suffered from depression & anxiety for many years. I don’t know if she looked at any of the group posts or if it would have made any difference but I wanted others in the group to know they mattered. I wanted them to know if they felt down or sad or lonely that we MOD’s were here for them because it speaks to the very core of what I was trying to do those almost 6 years ago. A place of refuge. And then to this past week which has been most difficult for me. I found myself struggling to reconcile my activity outside this group with my activity inside this group. I did not want to make mistakes with this most treasured place so I told you I needed to take a break and not post. I didn’t know how long it would take but after 2 days things became clear to me on the direction I needed to go with this group. Despite differences we all may have this must remain a place of refuge I still need a place to go - a place of peace, a place of love, a place of community

Editors Note: This was originally written in Nov. 2016