Remembering Our Sweet Girl

Shortly after Sage came to live with us.

In August of 2013 we lost our sweet girl Sage after about 18 months of deterioration.  I realized I never shared about her here and she was a special girl worth sharing.

Always being mauled by her brother

Sage came to us from under a porch at about six weeks old when Joe and I were in grad school out in Pullman, WA.  She was an angry little white puff ball and spent her first three days behind our couch hissing and spitting when we came near.  I had not been around cats since I was a child and honestly thought of myself as a dog person until then.  I had never seen a cat spit before and she was feisty.  Eventually she tired herself out and I was able to scoop her up and set her down out in the living room.  

Aslan, our other kitten the same age from another litter, immediately took her under his wing and showed her the food and litter box.  After that he was always in her space, much to her dismay, crawling into the cat bucket with her/on her for naps.  Joe and I laugh now as we watch our new kitten Lilah do the same thing to Aslan that he did to Sage all those years ago.  But without that little guy with the huge ears we would have had a tough time with little Sagie.

She didn't warm up to us until my folks came out to Washington to visit for a week.  My mom was determined that Sage just needed some extra love and she sat with Sage on her lap for what seemed like an hour one day and that seemed to break away the last of the nervous stray in her.  She was a mamas girl but she was always shy around others and VERY leery when we added the dogs to our family.

Her princess pose

As a blue eyed chocolate point Siamese Sage was always a beauty and would strike poses that said look at me.  She has the most amazing soft fur and I loved snuggling with her and listening to her sweet purr.  When I was pregnant with our first child she would curl up with a paw on my belly at night and purr me to sleep.

Little sage loved the outdoors and while she and her brother are indoor kitties they always had a big window to sit in and watch the birds.  She loved chirping back at them when they came into view.  Occasionally we did let them out to explore while supervised and Sage always pushed the limits of gravity jumping to the top of a six foot fence or wiggling away under things.  She loved to just sit in the grass and enjoy a sunny day.

Sunny outside time

Into tight spaces

Her last big contribution.  Helping Abby with a science project.

Sagie was always a very athletic kitty and seemed to constantly find ways to get herself into trouble.  She loved to play but always on her own terms and would pounce on anything moving under blankets.   Her dad was always teasing her that way.  Even though she was petite compared to her 15 lb brother she could jump higher and father than any other cat I have known.  

One day when we were in grad school still I had a couple girl friends over to make candles and Sage and her curiousity got the best of her.  She jumped up onto the counter where things were drying and knocked over a votive.  I was pulling wax out of her fir for days.

One of my favorite pics of Sage
and Aslan at about a year old.

She was quite curious and would constantly open cabinets and pull drawers out so you could tell where she had been in a day.   I remember one very early morning about 4-5 months before she passed we had her in the bathroom because her bowel control was diminished.  Joe was up early to head to the gym and woke me with cussing because Sage had locked herself in the bathroom by pulling out some drawers.  Having had this happen before I got up and got the drawer back in but that was a rude awakening.

She was also a master hider and with her petite size she could make herself pretty small.  She was able to miss out on a vet appointment because we couldn't find her one day.  

Sage, Sagie Pooh, Poo, Princess Sage... our sweet girl.  It was hard to watch her decline in the end but I would not trade the time we had with her for anything.