My Sweet Blossom

I'll never forget the day my sweet Blossom fell into my life, literally. It was a cool summer evening, sometime in late August. I was just getting ready for bed when I heard a commotion outside my window of the three-bedroom apartment. I decided to run outside and see what was going on, when I found a crowd of people gathered around a tree. There was an older boy in the tree shaking one of the large branches. A man nearby saw me gawking and said "Hey, kid, go get a blanket or something." Without skipping a beat, I ran back into our apartment to find a spare blanket and returned to the crowd. Before I knew it, a small orange kitten fell into my arms, terrified. With many sighs of relief, the crowd began to disperse. I looked around a little confused as to what I should do with the little bundle of fur that I just caught. "Congrats kid, you have a new cat." I heard as everyone left the field.

I looked down into the innocent green eyes that peered up at me. My mom wasn't too thrilled at first, but she realized a cat would be easier to maintain than a dog at my age. I was only about 8 years old at the time.

Blossom. That's what I decided to name her. Yes, I was obsessed with the Powerpuff Girls at the time, and it seemed the most appropriate name for her. She had such a gorgeous, ginger color. And my sweet girl was a Manx, so she also had no tail. It was more of a nub. It was the cutest thing when she would get excited and shake her little tail stub. She did it the most when she wanted to play fetch with me. You read that right, fetch. She was so silly. She would find any hair tie or scrunchie and bring it to me, wagging her stub, waiting for me to throw it around for her to retrieve.

She was always so cuddly with me. Never a night went by that she wasn't curled up in my bed. I was her person, the one she trusted the most. She tolerated my mom and my auntie (mom's best friend), and would only ever go to them when I wasn't home.

Blossom was very easy to care for. She was sweet and docile. Very smart. She loved hanging out on high places, like the top of this old bookshelf we had. When she wasn't wandering around inside, she was outside. My uncle (mom's brother), let us rent out his old house once his new one was built. Our indoor cats were able to go outside for the first time. We never chanced letting them explore the world outside our little apartment. They became excellent mousers.

We had this small stonewall that ran along one side of the house. Blossom usually spent her time there while I was at school. I would find her waiting there for me sometimes when I walked home from my bus stop. I miss the excitement she had when she saw me, and her gentle meows. She made the cute chittering sounds alot. She was pretty talkative.

I remember spending late nights doing homework, or watching TV, or just playing video games with Blossom there on my bed, cuddled comfortably on my blanket. I miss having her by my side. She was good company to keep, very low maintenance. She never minded when I had my music playing, or the sounds of the video games I played, which was usually World of Warcraft.

I had 2 windows in my room. One was a high, thin rectangular window that ran horizontally on one wall. The blinds on that one were broken so they would only come down 2/3rds of the way. The other window was a tall arched window that sat in the center of the wall of my room that faced the main street. Blossom loved looking out the windows. There were always lots of birds flying around outside, and squirrels running along the branches of the large tree we had in the front yard. The critters kept her entertained.

When it got cold outside, she would just lay in the sunrays on my bed and soak in the warmth. It probably helped that I had more than one blanket on my bed at a time. She always got nice and comfortable.

We enjoyed several years in that house. We had moved in around the time I was 10. The year of my 15th birthday, everything changed and it did so fast. I wish I could go back and change some of the decisions I made. There was a friend from church that was giving away kittens, the most adorable siamese kittens. I had asked my auntie what she thought, and she thought it was a good idea, seeing as our last young cat was chased off by her old grumpy cat. I totally forgot to consult my mother on this choice and before I knew it my friend was at my frontdoor with me new cat, Prince.

My mom was definitely upset with me, and that was understandable. But what I didn't expect was for Blossom to start hating me. We had 2 young, male cats previously and she never had a problem with them. I assumed she would be okay with this one. But I was so wrong. She would hide under my bed for days at a time, and scratch and hiss at me if I tried to reach out to her. My poor girl was angry. In retrospect, I wish I never chose to bring him in.

Months later, my life took a drastic turn and that's when everything changed. It was about a month after my 15th birthday, while my auntie was away on a vacation, that my mom passed away in our home. I was alone, with all our pets (a dog and 3 cats), desperately waiting for emergency services to arrive, and calling every family member I could for help. When the time came for me to leave, I chose to take Prince with me, since he was only a baby. I was going to come back for Blossom, I didn't want to shock her with drastic changes in environment.

Before I knew it I was being tossed from family member to family member, unable to just go back home. All I wanted was to go see my baby Blossom again.

While I was away, my auntie cared for our pets, alone, in our home. I can't imagine how she must've felt in that time. When I returned, my uncle decided to kick her out of the house. All because my mom was gone. My auntie had to move into an apartment again, and this place had a pet policy of a maximum of 2 animals. By that time, Prince had taken off to chase the female cats around the neighborhood. Blossom, however, only hid when people came near.

During the move, my sweet girl had hidden herself inside the couch, and basically smuggled herself into my auntie's new apartment. We laughed and thought it was the cutest thing, but soon my auntie began to panic. She did that a lot honestly. I begged her to let Blossom stay in her apartment, that she could keep her in the second room of her two bedroom, and that I would care for her. She wouldn't have it, and she eventually brought her back to the old house.

I was angry. How could she abandon my girl like that?

I ended up living with my uncle, who wouldn't allow me to have any pets due to his husband having cancer. He said I could take up responsibility of one of his pomeranians outside if I wanted a pet so badly. But it wasn't the same. I wanted my sweet girl back. I wanted my childhood pet back.

I went back to the house, hoping to find her. But I never saw her again.

My Blossom was lost.

To this day, I've gone back occasionally and walked the trail behind our old neighborhood, to see if I could ever find her. It's been 11 years and sometimes I still have hope that I'll find her. But my worst fear is that she may have died of a broken heart, under our shed in the back yard.