Cotton Has Tortitude

KC invited me to join the Tough A#s Tortie Association and I accepted. Her Auntie Deb was real nice and she signed me up and posted my application as soon as I submitted it. So now I am an official member. My TATA badge is already posted in the sidebar.

This was my application:

I was surprised to receive my first email. One addressed to Cotton and not to Jan or to the Funny Farm. KC invited me to join the tough a** tortie club. What an honor. What better way to prove I am a tough tortie and to show my tortie ‘tude than by sending this photo of me wearing my official Ao4 trooper helmet.

I also have a feminine side, as captured in this photo of me in my Gizzy bed on top of the fridge, where I reign with undisputed territorial rights.

I don’t remember much about the first 4 to 6 weeks of my life. I just suddenly found myself sitting in the road early one morning with traffic slowing and moving around me. Then I spied Jan as she walked out her front door to pick up the paper from the lawn. She looked to see what the traffic problem was, saw me and just folded onto a porch step. I staggered as fast as I could to her, asking for help. But she said no. I rubbed against her and on rubbery legs tried to climb on her lap, but she wouldn’t touch me. She just kept saying, “No, not another one. I can’t take you inside. You’ll make all my cats sick.”

I told her, no, I wouldn’t do that to her, but she wouldn’t believe me. I persisted. She finally melted and carried me inside where Jenny and Grayce her two older kitties and young Crystal welcomed me with open arms. Okay, to be honest, with a lot of sniffing, suspicion, and on Jenny’s part, hissing. I didn’t know it at the time but Jan didn’t think I would live through the day and she had no money to take me to the vet.

I found this in her file about the day she found me: “Boney, buggy, tapeworms, mucous pouring from eyes & nose, breathing through mouth, terrified of me, cats, toys and everything. (Abused?) Lethargic for 2 days.” I don’t remember what she did to help me but I not only lived through the day, I will be 9 years old in June.

My favorite pastime is purring and rubbing against Jan’s arm, especially when she’s busy on the computer. I helped train the new members of the Funny Farm as they arrived. When they’re annoying, I raise one paw and yell, “Stop!” and they stop being annoying – or else.

(s) Cotton, Jan’s Funny Farm

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On a different subject, we are amazed to see how quickly word has spread about Pepper. We posted about her last Thursday and the news has snowballed. A number of you have donated to her medical bills. Pepper's Jan (not our Jan) is a couple of hours away from her sick kitty and she works. Although she doesn't have a blog, Pepper does have a webpage. In case you missed it, our post on Pepper is here and you can find a link to Pepper's page there.

(s) Jan's Funny Farm