Grizzabella the Glamour Cat!

Grizzabella the Glamour Cat…

I was 12, sitting in the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California with my aunt and uncle watching the National Tour of CATS–the hit Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber.  My aunt and uncle were huge fans of the show.  Needless to say, they were also huge fans of cats in general.  So when the hit Broadway show came to Southern California where I grew up, they knew I had to see it! 

I too, as you well know, love cats. However, what you may not know is I loved, and still love to sing!  In fact, I love it all-theater, dance, musicals…..so CATS was the perfect show to attend!  I’ll never forget as I watched the beautiful Grizabella the Glamour Cat gracefully walk onto the massive stage and in the still spotlight sing “memory all alone in the moonlight”……..her voice was so incredible-every move so lovely….. as a young girl, I was moved and inspired.

Fast forward 20 years …

I found myself at the Southern Oregon Humane Society looking for a cat to adopt.  It would be the first time I would have my own pet.  Previously, all my pets were family pets I’d grown up with.  It was time for my own little furball, and the sound of pitter pattering feet around my apartment.  In a way, it’s hard to look back at that moment.  What led me there was my own desperate longing for love and companionship. 

You see, I had been so alone for so long-too long.  I was single and slowly starting to come out of a long deep depression. Finally, one day my wise mother put me in her car and said, “we are going right now to get you a cat!”.

Spoiler alert- It was the best decision!! 

As I looked at the cats, one most definitely stole my heart.  A sweet 3 1/2-year-old with long grey-hair, white paws, and light orange markings on her chest.

She was afraid and her eyes looked so sad-just as mine were.  Apparently, she lived with an elderly woman who passed away. She was then transported in the back of a trailer from Dallas, Texas to Oregon.  The volunteers said she was traumatized. But when I put her on my lap she calmly sat there. It was an instant love for both of us! Right then I looked at her and thought she looked just like Grizabella the Glamour Cat from CATS. I decided that would be her name!  My beautiful Grizzabella-with 2 z’s!!

And boy, is she ever the Glamour Cat! She gets her way-as she should!!

I absolutely adore her and that bond from the first day has never left.  We are buddies!  Every day I can’t wait to see her at the door.  The minute I’m on the couch she’s there snuggling next to me.  At night she settles into her regular cuddle spot by my head much to my husbands’ dismay….lol….( he’s not a huge fan of pets on the bed, but I made that clear early on that Grizzy would be the exception..he he…sorry hon! )

I love my little girl, she came to me at a perfect time in my life. It was a time when I felt very much “all alone in the moonlight”. I also feel she was good fortune.  For shortly after Grizzabella came to live with me, I met a wonderful man who is now my husband!  After years of loneliness, I suddenly found myself surrounded by ones that I loved very much and who loved me!

Love was no longer a “memory”, it was in the present, every day!!