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| Name: |
Shima
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Age: |
Nine years old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Tabby
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| Home: |
South Eastern Michigan, USA
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My husband and I adopted Shima when he was only nine weeks old. He was a small, scruffy looking kitten, and very friendly. We adopted him at a pet store in the mall - they mostly adopted out puppies, but now and then they had kittens there. We took Shima into the little play pens to play with us, but all they had were puppy toys. I took a bottle of my medication from my purse and began shaking it at him, then rolled it on to the floor. He instantly attacked the bottle, batting it around playfully and rolling all over it. After he was done playing, my husband picked him up and held him on his back like a baby. A good deal of cats don't like that position, but it's the only position he will let us hold him in. As he lay there like a baby in my husband's arms, we knew he had to be a member of our family. My husband and I met in a chatroom online - when I met him he went by the screen name ShimazuYuki. Though everyone else called him Yuki, I called him Shima. In Japanese, Shima means "stripes." Shima is a tabby cat so he is stripy, and named after his daddy!
To state it bluntly, I am an extremely ill person; I live with both Chronic Pain and Chronic Illness. I spend a lot of my time sitting at home by myself while my husband works. Shima can always seem to tell when I hurt the most. Most of the time when I am living at my most painful, he jumps up on the couch and curls up with me, just staring at me and purring. He'll also randomly jump on my lap when I'm hurting, reaching up for my face and kissing my forehead. He takes such good care of his Momma!
He has taught me more patience than anyone else has. He was always a very hyper and rambunctious kitten, and still is sometimes today. Every time he would knock things over or scratch things that he shouldn't, I would pick him up and just look into his eyes and tell him "NO" in a very stern tone (as if I knew how to train a cat!) He would then look right back up at me with his big, yellow-green eyes ... and swipe at my dangling hair with his little paws playfully. It is always so hard to stay angry with him - he's just so sweet and good natured ... and so loving and caring. I never feel alone when he's around, even when I'm laying on the couch in horrible pain - he's always by my side.
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