My Heartbeat

On Tuesday, November 13th, 2001, my boyfriend became my fiancé and Rumble became my heartbeat on four legs.  He opened the truck door for me and as I was about to crawl in, I saw a tan basket sitting in my seat.  I went to toss the basket into the backseat when I noticed a black cat with huge yellow eyes staring at me.  As I turned around to ask where he came from, my boyfriend was down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  My engagement ring was around the collar of the cat sitting in the basket.  I said, "Yes" and I got an engagement ring and a cat all on the same day. 

We took the cat back to my fiancé’s apartment and he promptly ran under the bed.  We didn't see him for the rest of the night or the next 3 days when I came over to visit either.  BUT, we could hear him purring from every room in the apartment.  Thus his name, Rumble. 

My husband likes to tell the story of how exactly he picked Rumble, or rather how Rumble picked him.  My best friend/childhood pet was a solid black cat with yellow eyes named Norman.  So, my husband knew what he was looking for.  He didn't want a kitten because they get adopted too easily so he went into the 2 years and younger room.  As he was playing with a black cat that had one white foot, he felt a paw tapping him on the shoulder.  My husband turned around and there was Rumble, sitting at the top of a cat tree, letting him know that he needed to turn around to find him. 

Thus the story of how Rumble chose my husband, how I got my ring, and how Rumble became my heartbeat on four legs.

He's too skinny

I remember telling my husband during Christmas 2010, that our cat, Rumble, was losing weight and looking skinny.  He agreed, but since his yearly appointment was always at the first of January, we decided to wait and see what our vet said. 

Mama Knows Best!  I should have listening to myself more closely but our vet convinced me that Rumble's weight lose was a natural reaction to the new things in his life:  we bought our first house 3 years ago, added a second dog 2 years ago, and added a kitten one year ago.  Sure, being the owner of a house, two dogs, and a fellow kitten could make a cat lose weight, but I thought there was more to it than that. 

He also began acting differently.  Rumble was always affectionate, but he usually hung around us, not directly on us.  Come to find out, he was exhibiting another symptom called Heat Seeking.  Rumble went from sitting on top of the couch behind us to directly sitting on our laps every chance he got.  I loved every minute of it; I only wish I had known it was a symptom. 

I wish I had listened to myself more closely and had started getting Rumble's blood tested during this first appointment in January.  Don't ever doubt yourself.  Please trust your instincts and push for tests to be done.  Don't let your vet convince your head when your heart knows that something is wrong.