SWEET EMMA LOU

December of 1996 my husband asked me what I would like for Christmas...
my reply... Beauty...Beauty? Is that a new perfume?... I had been watching a local noon time news show that fateful day, a day in which this particular television station was hosting the local animal refuge league. A lovely lady representing the league had brought in with her a few of their cats that were up for adoption. A small petite cat named Beauty caught my eye, really it was love at first sight. I am pleased to say my husband did indeed adopt Beauty for me as my Christmas gift that year. Not only did Beauty have a new forever home, but a new name too, Sweet Emma Lou. Emma Lou spent her first week hiding under our bed, by the time I got a good look at her I thought for sure my husband had brought home the wrong cat, she looked nothing like the cat I had seen on television. I eventually chalked it up to good makeup. It did not take Emma Lou long to make herself right at home, with four other cats and two dogs in the house she had no choice. Emma was approximately five years old and thought to be an indoor only kitty. We soon discovered that Emma had a special gift... Most nights while we slept she was on the prowl, her prey: socks, hats, and underwear...most mornings I would find one or more of these items downstairs on the living room floor always wondering how they got there. One morning while cooking breakfast I heard a strange meowing, one of those proud meows which says come look at me...and their she was coming down the stairs with a red knit hat in her mouth... Oh how I have loved that little cat... Emma Lou out lived those four cats and two dogs and even in her old age she could put Winslow Homer in his place. Today...at the age of twenty one...my Sweet Emma Lou passed away...my heart hurts...but I know it was her time...and I am so grateful that she was in my life for sixteen years...Emma Lou you will always remain safely tucked in my heart...