Marilyn Monroe & Audrey Hepburn

**(the pic of me holding the butterfly was accidentally uploaded as the cover to this story & couldn't be edited...it is a beautiful pic for an awesome story at another time...)

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The carnival. It all started because my six-year-old daughter won a goldfish at the carnival. She named her Golden Girl, which I found brilliant because we love to watch episodes of the beloved show, and, well, she was naming a goldfish! The next morning, Golden Girl was floating at the top of the bowl, and I had to have my first conversation with my daughter, Savannah Grace, about Heaven. I remembered an episode of The Cosby Show where they had a funeral for Rudy's goldfish. After watching it on Youtube, Savannah seemed to understand that sometimes this might happen to a little girl's pet goldfish. We then had our own fish funeral. That seemed to make her feel a little better.

We headed to the pet store to buy another goldfish. A goldfish. We walked out with two kittens. And so it began...

You should first understand that I am not a cat person. But when my little girl looked at me saying, "Please Mommy! Puh-leeeease can we get the kitties??" And of course the sales "adoption" lady said she'd give me two for the price of one. Looking at my adorable daughter cuddling the precious kittens, I caved.

Fast forward a few years, and I found myself working from home. I was in sales for an educational nursing program where I met virtually with potential students. The meetings usually lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. I had a separate office with an L-shaped glass desk. I had a brand new pink ergonomic, or gaming, chair. I loved it. My office was so cute, crisp, and clean which, I thought, made it was great for productivity.

The cats were not allowed in my office. So how did my office desk and floor end up with cat hair all over it you ask?

I had grown to love those two kittens. Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Marilyn was black and white with a perfectly round black dot on her left cheek, hence her name. Audrey was her beautiful grey and white sister. Those two were quite a pair. Marilyn was the more playful of the two, and Audrey was just like her namesake, classy and elegant. They complimented each other in that way.

So as I said, I did love them very much, but I did not love the cat hair, nor when they stretched and pricked their claws into whatever they were stretching out on. I do not believe in declawing a cat so I clipped their front claws regularly, however, they still were able to ruin our couch. I was not loving that. And I was not letting them anywhere near that beautiful pink chair.

With my daughter's allergies, I had to keep them out of the bedroom as well. So every morning before my alarm went off, Audrey would meow at the bedroom door. "Mee-oww." Did I mention it was before my alarm went off? I would ignore her, trying to get the last 45 minutes of sleep in. "Meeee-ooowwwww!" And when I would still not answer, she would mush her face up to the crack in between the door and frame, and I swear it was a muffled but very clear "HELLLL-OOOOOO??!!" That stinker. I was up. Mad of course but laughing at how much it sounded like that. But I was angry...I mean, who did she think she was, Lionel Richie??

I would feed them first, then start to get ready for work. As I was brushing my teeth, inevitably one of them would jump up onto my back as I bent over to rinse. Ugh. It was like they thought I was bending over for them to jump up there! I bet they thought it was really funny. (Ok, it kinda was!) But I was always in a rush to get to my first meeting, and they were so distracting!

And keeping them out of the office was a game for them, too. They were constantly sneaking in. Sometimes I had to just give in and let them stay. Usually they just wanted to sit on the windowsill. Other times, they liked the cool glass of my desk on their bellies. But they were determined to stay in that office with me.

If I left the room for a glass of water (or wine if I were just entering my notes for the night), my keyboard would mysteriously change to another language...(and no, I didn't have that much wine! Clearly, they had walked across the keyboard again!)

The ironic truth was that after all of the silly things they did that I thought drove me crazy, I did actually love them very much.

(Prepare for the sad ending...it stinks to end such a cute story this way but it's a true story, so here goes...)

After losing my job due to Covid, we then lost our house, so we needed to find a new home for Marilyn and Audrey. I surprised myself, crying harder than I thought I would when we left them. I'm not sure who needed more consoling, Savannah or me! I was the adult and had to help Savannah through it, but I found it so difficult to say goodbye to these sweet souls who brought so much joy into our little family. I hope that they still remember us, and know how much we truly loved them.

So I guess all three of us lost our jobs. But the warmth and love they brought to our lives - even my puuurrrfectly clean "cat free" office - made them the best co-workers ever.