Minnie Moo thinks about family

When I found M and basically took over her life I knew that for the first time in my teeny tiny life I was home. It wasn't until a few days later I realised I'd struck gold with M you see it's not everyday that you find your first real life human peep Mum. 

Little did I know M came with a whole bonus family that literally stretched for miles and miles across water and countries.

On the top of my new family tree sat Oma and Opa that's how the Dutch folks say Grandma and Grandpa. Perched on the branches below sits a sister who lives in Brisbane, a brother in Sydney plus another brother from just down the road and around a few corners. From what I can gather he lives quite close-by and you don't need to pack a suitcase to visit.

Then alongside them all is the cutey-pa-toot-ey grand children, followed by the peeps who sound like they're in trouble with the law; the in-laws and loads of cousins, uncles, aunts who live here in Noo-Ziland, Oz-trailer and Holland. We've got family from Japan too and the newest guy well he comes all the way from that cold country Chilly or is it Chile?

Just when I thought I'd managed to wrap my little but incredibly brainy brain around M's family who's who I had to stop and start all over again to include the family of the other man who lives in my house. His gorgeous daughter Y tops the list (even tho' she won't let me sleep on her bed).

As you can imagine finding family was quite overwhelming for me. Here I was thinking "wow at last my days of living on the street are over I've finally found myself a nice house to move into and occupy." Thinking back I couldn't quite believe the house came complete with a perfect sunny sleeping spot, a cashmere blanket, plenty of lovely used shower water to lap up and a fresh bowl of friskies morning and night. 

At the time I thought "hello am I the richest cat in the whole-wide-world or what?"

Soon after when I realised there was a human peep living in the house I paused to think, "hmmm am I ok with this"? Well if it meant me being lavished with love and loads of treats, heck yes! Being a logical thinker I made a mental note to myself to love all the family members coz this in turn would mean even more love and treats for me. Perfect.

It's now a few years on and I've actually met loads of peeps from the family tree and they're all wonderful each with their own unique personality, making them all super special. They all seem to have one thing in common, a funny bone. You see they laugh a lot and get my jokes too.

Meeting Oma and Opa for the first time was quite something for me as I'd never met anybody who carried the prestigious title of "Senior Citizen" or is it Senor Citizen? For me it was like love at first sight. Both would just leave me sitting quite happily on the ground as bending down to pick me up was quite the challenge. This suited me as Dr Tigger had previously diagnosed me with having pawsoffthegroundaphobia. Plus they'd often cat-sit when M deserted me for a couple of days.

Us cats are known to prefer the single life. We just like to be left alone. But deep down I secretly loved having two family trees growing in my life. If I was ever laid low with a bout of the cat-blues or if the magical Ms Miley was trying to scratch my nose I felt I had family to look out for me making me feel safe and connected.

One week ago today my life changed and this past week has taught me to never-ever under estimate family. One minute I was sitting with paw to keyboard ready to type a letter to Miss Ratto the next moment things turned all topsy-turvy. 

I got the so-sad news M's Dad and my first-ever OPA had passed away to take a long eternal nap in the sky. I'm still feeling a little shaky but later I'll share a couple of stories about this very special man.

M whispered to me that it was heart-breaking to see her once robust food loving and funny Dad slowly slip away to become like a little frail and fragile sparrow bird.

It was M who also whispered "Minnie Moo he may have been our little frail sparrow but you know what he was our little happy sparrow." This brought a smile to my heart and a tear into my friskie bowl.

To our very special Happy Chappie OPA R.I.P Lots of love Minnie Moo