Feline Friends:

I just got the note below from my mother today, and I have personally seen the change in my mom since she adopted Zuzu (formerly Chrysanthemum). Zuzu is truly a testament to the love, joy and healing that pets bring us.

Thanks again for keeping her until she was adopted by my mom. They are quite the pair!

Best regards,

Anne Boomer

P.S. I have two cats and never had to put child-proof anything up, but when my fiance and I were visiting my mom a month and a half ago we all decided that it would be safest to install them to keep Zuzu OUT of the cupboards and out of danger. She is the very definition of curious!

"To my friends at Feline Friends:

I have to tell you about my Zuzu. You may remember that I adopted her as Chrysanthemum after Christmas, when my daughter Annie Boomer bought her for me, to help heal my broken heart after my tiny kitten Lulu was put down in November in MI.

We left Feline Friends and drove to Zephyrhills to start our life together. It has been very good for both of us. After C got used to her new name Zuzu, she certainly grew into a rip-roaring Zuzu! Actually, she's more often Zuzu-Boo!

You said she was very smart and had you all wrapped. I can say the same, times 100!

Zuzu wakes me up with a kiss and a paw on my face, usually between 6:30 and 7 a.m., and expects me to get out of bed and open the blinds in the living room so that she can see what's happening outside. I am NOT a morning person, but this I do for Zuzu.

Zuzu has gotten me more mobile than I have been since I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, climbing down under tables and running the yardstick under the refrigerator to get her toys and felt mice. She was a wonderful fetcher, and brought the mice back to me, to be tossed again and again for her to catch in midair with both paws! I say was, because I think she saw the recent cartoon of the dog who decided his master was too heavy and needed the exercise more than he did and stopped fetching. She followed suit, and I am now the fetcher. I guess Zuzu knows best.

I had to install child-proof locks on the lower cabinet doors in my kitchen and bathroom, because Zuzu would open them and get into things that she shouldn't. And after having that done, I still have to tape the bathroom cabinet doors shut at night, because Zuzu opens/shuts/opens/shuts/opens/shuts the doors as far as they will go, until it makes me nuts! My bedroom is right next to the bathroom and the noise makes me crazy!

Speaking of the bathroom, which is one of Zuzu's favorite places, I have to tape shut one side of the wide, slim medicine chest over the sink, because the slider door is easy to open, and Zuzu likes to get into that side and chew on my toothbrushes. Her teeth are pearly white already! She also likes Kleenex very much. She climbs on top of the vanity and pulls them out and leaves a huge pile of them. But she never blows her nose! When I stuff all the tissues back into the box, she just pulls them all out again. Finally, I gave up and threw the whole box on the floor in the hall, where it remains. Zuzu never bothers them now. She only wants what she shouldn't have. She is truly a toddler!

The small kitchen sponge I use to wash dishes is frequently found on the floor at the foot of my bed. I can't imagine why, but Zuzu knows. And the heavy metal strainers for my double sink are a huge curiosity to her. Occasionally she moves them from the kitchen to the bathroom floor. I know she has a method to her madness, but I can't figure out what it is. Sometimes, the strainer might only make it to the middle of the kitchen floor, and the sponge from its place in a bowl by the sink INTO the sink. Maybe she thinks of doing the dishes during the night, and then decides against it. Whatever.

A few days ago I got a small toy ball at the store that included a wee plastic bag of catnip. After filling the sputnik-like ball, I put the catnip in the top cupboard, where I figured Zuzu couldn't get it. Silly me! Imagine my surprise a day later, when the new toy had disappeared as most do, to find the plastic bag opened and its contents spilled on the living room floor. Zuzu-Boo had rolled in it and was simply stoned on "kitty weed" and seemed to have no idea what she had done, much less where she was! The top cupboard door was closed, and Zuzu would have had to stand on her hind legs on the countertop and use her front paws to get the catnip out of the cupboard. It was not an easy reach, and the loot wasn't in the very front of the cupboard, either. She's pretty amazing!

That's just a little of what this kitten has done since I've had her. She has kept me in stitches laughing at what she can find to get into. I was a very busy toddler myself, and I think my Mother, who is deceased, must be having a good laugh at the hijinks this kitten is up to. My daughter Annie was an easy child. Zuzu is not an easy kitten. But I adore her and she adores me. She isn't so much "a tortie with a 'tude" as "a kit with a wit!"

I thank Annie every day for finding Chrysanthemum on the net and encouraging me to adopt her. She knew this kitten was special when she first saw her. How right she was!

Thanks for keeping her for me until we found her, Feline Friends!

Zuzu's "People Mama,"

Teresa Boomer

PS Zuzu has never said a word about what happened to her bobbed tail, or why it dried up and fell off. It's her story, and she's keeping it secret, but that tail...it communicates like all kitty tails do! Wonderfully!"