A Tribute

Mahly
(1990 - 2006)

Today, my family and I had to say goodbye to Mahly. We finally made the decision that was very difficult to make. She had not been well for a long time. As a little tribute to her, I would like to tell her story.

After living by myself in Cincinnati, Ohio for about two months, I started to get a little lonely. I decided to go to the local animal shelter and pick out a little kitten to become my friend. When I got to the shelter I started looking a kittens. None of them "called" out to me like they wanted to be my friend. Then I just walked around a little bit, looking at all of the cats they had. I was walking past the cages and noticed a cat staying way back in her cage so nobody could see her. I said hi. She meowed at me in what turned out to be her typical little meow. She was a bluepoint Siamese. She was very pretty. I opened her cage to pet her and she started to purr. I then went up to the counter and told them that I found a cat that I wanted to take home. They said to go get her. I did and some other customers at the counter asked me if I had ever had a Siamese cat before. Of course I said no. I had never had any cat before. They responded with "They like to talk." I paid for her ($50.00 + Tax) and took her back to my little two room apartment in a box that said, "I'm Going Home!"



I originally wanted a boy cat so that I could call him Gustav, after the composer Gustav Mahler. But I came home with a girl cat; you can't call a girl cat Gustav. That night I called Oda Momma and she suggested I call her Molly, but spell it M-A-H-L-Y. So that I would still name her after my favorite composer. I said that was silly. The next day I called Oda Momma up and told her that I had named my cat Mahly. Mahly lived under the bed for about two weeks. I never saw her except at promptly 4am every morning when she got brave enough to scope things out. I woke up every morning with her staring at me as she sat on my stomach.

We lived in Cincinnati for a few more months before coming back to Texas. The road trip back to TX wasn't fun for Mahly. She had to go real bad, but wouldn't. She held it all the way to Arkansas. Then we had to stop and clean up.



I left Mahly to live with my fiance and her roommate, Princess Dedra, until we got married. Admittedly, Mahly wasn't a very nice cat. She liked to scratch people. Oda Momma and Princess Dedra took Mahly to be de-clawed. Mahly was the nicest, most loving cat in the world after that. Go figure.

When we got married, Mahly went to go live with my sister while we were on our honeymoon. There, Mahly learned the fine art of hiding from dogs and sleeping on someone's head.



Mahly was our lone pet until Abby and Fergus, our dog's came along. She wasn't going to put up with any of their shenanigans. She let them know that right off the bat. The dogs pretty much left her alone.



Then Oda Mae came along last year. Mahly was very intrigued by this new little person living in our house. After being a very non-sociable cat all her life, Mahly started coming out to see people after Oda Mae was born. This was the first time some of our family had ever seen Mahly. I think maybe she was a little jealous of the baby and wanted some attention of her own.



Mahly was a very good friend to lots of people. She was my best friend in Ohio. We got along very well even though we had a love-hate relationship there towards the end.



Mahly, thanks for being my first bachelor pet. Thanks for being there when I needed company in Ohio. Thanks for being a member of our family. We'll miss you.

-OD

P.S. To see Mahly with the Oda Family go to Oda Momma's Blog.