Thank you so much for your kind words, virtual hugs, and compassion over our loss of Pia Bean who left us last Saturday morning due to advanced kidney disease. She was the end of almost 50 years of being owned by a ginger girl (or 2, 3 or 4 at once). We highly recommend you allow at least one in your life. You’ll be the better for it, we promise.
Mom’s had a ginger girl cat in her life since 1977. It was only a couple of years ago that she’d heard girl gingers were rare. They all just seemed normal to her, normal meaning they were girls and had gorgeous orange fur, sometimes short and sometimes long like Pia Bean. So many girl gingers were in Mom’s life, Dad sometimes called her a ginger cat. Maybe because like all ginger cats, she’s strong willed, stubborn and vocal.
Pia Bean certainly has been all those things. From her early days when she broke the Internet with her adorable cuteness to her day-to-day ginger girl personality quirks (like eating ants), she’s been very loved and showered with everything we could give her to spoil her silly.
A few years ago, Pia was diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. We’ve been down this terrible path many, many times and it just does not get any easier. She’s been letting us know for a few months now her end is catching up and she had more bad days than good for the past couple of weeks. For all we gave her, the only thing beyond our grasp is a forever life, except in our hearts.
With the help of a compassionate emergency vet across town, Pia left us at 9:59 a.m. Saturday morning to drift free toward the Rainbow bridge and to the warm Summerlands beyond, where, undoubtedly, dear angel Miss Newton has patiently looked and waited for her for so long. There won’t be another ginger girl in our lives. The Colehaus Cats are down to three and after those leave us, there won’t be anymore. Dad’s health and our finances won’t allow it. We’ve accepted that cruel reality.
Mom had a good long run with ginger girls, just a few months shy of 50 years. Thank you, Pia Bean, for having so much patience with us and for being the best of the bunch. It seems fitting that you be the last. To you and all the others who came before – Puddy, Spot, Zooot, Miss Newton, Zuzu, Sunny, Pia Bean, we love you. Until we meet again, remember so much love.
We completely forgot to post this photo last month of mama raccoon Bea as she so politely sits at the back of the garden waiting, perhaps, for some unwary human to accidently put out kibble for the stray cats in the neighborhood. She got her wish.
Bea’s a very polite raccoon. She gives us lots of space and we do the same. That said, absolutely not will we ever intentionally get close to her. She’s a wild animal and will probably tell her kits not to get close to us because we’re wild animals who just happen to live indoors and sometimes have extra food to share.
Over the winter, we inadvertently fed a skinny raccoon with a skinny, non-raccoon looking tail, that we creatively named Skinny Tail* (Bea’s on the left, Skinny on the right – see their tail differences?). Since winter, she’s put on weight in all the right places. She isn’t as brave as Bea and that’s how we like it. Skinny Tail also sports droopy nipples so we assume she has kits somewhere, like Bea does. And boy, oh boy, are they ever taking their time introducing those kits to our backyard sanctuary. We just know they’re going to love this place.
*Back in 2023, we had a different raccoon mama we named Skinny and she was really, really skinny all over, except, perhaps oddly enough, her tail was big and bushy as ever.
