Day 18: From the archives of my childhood

Tell a story about your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descrptive about what you remember and how you felt:

I would say I was pretty freakin adorable, wouldn't you?

I've been thinking about this one for days and I honestly considered not posting it, at least not until I had had more time to think about it. I obviously do not have memories of when I was as young as I am in the photo above, and I really had a hard time thinking of anything positive that I could remember and wanted to talk about.

That's me holding Trip- or trying to. And don't even get me started on those glasses.

Trip liked to sit at that window and talk to the birdies.

Then I spent Friday night looking through photos and came across a few of our first cat whom we named Triple Trouble because he was capable of causing such havoc, and who we lovingly referred to as Trip. The memory I have of the day we brought him home is particularly poignant now because he just passed away last month at the age of 18.

My brother had wanted a cat for ages and as a Valentine's Day present from our mom we got to go pick one out. A friend's cat had just had kittens and I remember being in a closet-like room with all the kittens. My mom says that Trip was the one kitten who sat on his own quietly and calmly, which was the biggest reason we chose him. The ride home was what I remember most clearly with little Trip being so terrified that we couldn't get him out of my mom's arms, so she had to drive home with his nose stuffed into the crook of her arm.

After we brought him home he became quite the little terror with so much mischievous energy he would pounce from around corners, and run laps in the living room at night like a caged wild animal.
The older he got, the more that calm side took over, and he became the smartest, most patient cat I've ever lived with.

Sadly, after about ten years with us, we could no longer keep him. He spent the last eight years of his life with a very loving woman who treated him like her child and even gave him his own room in her house. He was truly a loved and very lovable cat who lived a long, enviable cat life, and I will always remember him.