Annabel Lee

aka Nana

Nana

Mummie had a lot to learn when we rescued each other. You see, I rescued her from being catless and she rescued me from the pet store. According to the Store Lady, my littermates and I had just been brought to the store that very day. Of course, that could have been just the sort of thing that sort-of-humans say in order to, um, encourage people to buy us and take us home. Back then, July 24, 1979, people actually bought kitties in pet stores. I was only eight weeks old, the lady said (I think I might have been even younger - maybe even just seven weeks), so I don't remember how long I was at that store.

But what Mummie had to learn wasn't that kittens shouldn't be sold in pet stores, or even that kittens shouldn't be declawed. It was 1979 after all and a lot of real humans didn't know any better. Pets were still struggling to be "part of the family" in those days. Lots of people declawed us or kept us Outside and didn't understand why this was a Bad Thing. Heck, some people (not fully human, I think) thought we belonged outside.

Now, what Mummie had to learn was that a kitten will tell a human her real name. Mummie came into the store with two names already decided on. She was looking for either Hollywood Star or Annabel Lee. (Don't ask about that first one. Mummie was young and foolish - if that isn't redundant!) Mummie also had very specific requirements for her potential kitten: she had to be a grey tabby, and she had to be a she.

So there I was, the littlest of a litter of five or six, and a girl, and back in the day I had very tabby markings. And I knew I was Annabel Lee. And as soon as Mummie picked me up I told her so and got all that "Hollywood Star" nonsense right out of her head! She adopted me right then and there (I won't use the word "bought" in reference to our rescue) and bought a carrier, litter box and litter for me. I was so small - I could fit into the palm of her hand, almost! - that she needed the carrier so I wouldn't get lost in her big Dodge Charger.

Well, in all the excitement, Mummie somehow forgot to get FOOD! Can you believe it? I knew from the get-go I had my work cut out for me! So on our way home from the pet store, with me yowling all the way (and boy did that car have good acoustics!), she had to stop at the grocery store. Even then she knew about the dangers of leaving a cat in a hot car, so she must have been in and out of that store in about a minute and a half! (And she left the windows open, and it was after dusk, so I wasn't in any real danger at all.) She and I drove home the rest of the way with the windows partly open. But because my yowling was so loud, Mummie expected at any time that the police were going to pull her over for animal abuse!

I never did like the car. Or the carrier. At least on my last trip, Mummie held me.

Annabel Lee went to the Rainbow Bridge on December 8, 1999 after 20 years with her Mummie, JJ. JJ rescued other cats later but Nana was one of a kind.

Return to the Rescue Stories