Sheba Simmons

I adopted Sheba from a shelter when she was about a year old. She was originally the youngest of my 3 fur baby kitties who were 10 years her senior. Years later she became the oldest of 3 by about the same number of years. When I brought home her 2 younger sisters who were just kittens at the time I wasn't sure how she would take to them with the big age difference, but she was great with both of them. One of those little kittens, Starlett grew especially close to Sheba. I would often find Starlett cuddled up with her paw wrapped around Sheba. This same display of affection lasted until Sheba's final days.

Sheba was a handful and smart. When she wanted my attention or to be fed she knew just the right trigger to use which usually involved knocking things over or obsessively licking anything that would generate a noise loud enough for me to hear. She liked playing with ribbons and stealing pens away when I was using them . She was also good at taking my gloves or socks and announcing she had them. She wasn't a lap cat. Instead she preferred to sit quietly by my side and have the back of her ears or under her chin gently scratched. She was the only cat I ever had to cat proof the house for. I had to use tension rods to keep sliding closet doors and dresser drawers closed and locks on lower cabinets to keep her out of trouble. However she knew exactly they were not engaged and immediately got into mischief.

Sheba had been diagnoised with kidney disease over 2 years ago and had been doing okay. Her last several months were the hardest with all the vet visits for other issues. She'd been treated for an abcessed tooth, then shortly after GI lymphoma which cause large amounts of fluid to accumulate in her abdominal cavity. Poor thing endured having the fluids drained on 4 seperate occassions. She was a little trooper through all of this. After the last procedure she did not bounce back like she had with the prior ones. It was then I made the difficult decision for her to cross over the rainbow bridge after 17 years of life. Love you alway Sheba, me and your sisters will miss you but know you are in a better place.

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