Raven's Story - Raven's Bond With V - Part 2

Raven's Story - In Loving Memory

In deep thought?

This is the second installment of telling the story of the beautiful bond between Raven and her V. It's been seven weeks and I wish I could say that this loss hurts a little less, but it doesn't. I am still in the guilt trap and left wondering if I should have tried harder to save her. I know the outcome might have been the same, but it might not have been and I might still have my Raven with me. I hope to look back on these posts one day and smile and laugh like some of you have mentioned that you do while reading them. Others have mentioned that they both laugh and cry while reading them. I am still honored so that so many take the time to read my blog.  I appreciate the support and it definitely helps keep me writing. Although, I really do want to do this so I remember as much as possible about Raven.

I'm not quite sure where to start in their story in this entry.  I guess a good place would be those head massages that V gave to Raven that she loved so much. In fact, she loved them so much that V was the only one who could "do them right". If I tried, Raven literally would just look up at me like, "Nice try, but you're not doing it right."  I knew I wasn't doing it right because when V did it, she would put Raven right to sleep. It didn't take long for Raven to start becoming quite demanding of those massages, both when I was away and when V was over for a visit. As her personal masseuse, V was able to put her right to sleep and down for the count. Completely "in the zone" as V would say.

Raven always knew when V was coming and I never understood that. Although, I really shouldn't be too surprised considering how smart she was in so many areas. I just never understood how she knew V was coming this way rather than heading out. Wherever Raven was, whether it be sleeping on me, laying on the bed, laying on the couch or in the bed she made for herself at the bottom of the linen closet, she would always get up and go to the door before V even got to it. You must understand that the reason this is big is because V lived right next door and our doors weren't far apart. Sleeping or awake, she knew V was coming and beat her to the door. There were a couple of times V came to just drop off coffee and Raven missed her due to being in a deep sleep. Once she woke up just as V was leaving, she would be upset that she missed her and meow at the door. That didn't happen too often.

I took the two pictures below. That was their last time together right before V moved. I took several, most not great - not like the two below are of good quality. The others won't be posted for other reasons. Also, this was not the position Raven was usually in with her, but I think the chips were in the way. You can see in Raven's face that she is totally heading in to that "zone".

All of the below pictures were taken by V various times I was away during their one on one bonding time and routines. From what I know, she used to get up on the arm on the couch and start giving V looks and slamming her head into V's hand. Probably looking at her wondering when the massages where going to start.

I don't know if Raven was just hanging and waiting for a massage or just hanging out watching TV with V in the next ones

Finally, the below pictures are of Raven "in the zone" after her massage.

The other thing that started happening once V started taking care of Raven is that Raven just flat out stopped eating her dinner for me. Dinner was 1/8 of a can of wet because that is all she would eat of it. Raven was a dry food "crack" addict. I think I have mentioned in previous posts that I will never feed dry food to an pet again. I digress - Anyway, Raven decided that she preferred the way V made her dinner and that was it. She would eat some of it for me, but for V, she would eat ALL of it. V would say to me, "I don't understand why. I only did what you told me to do." Hmmmm clearly not. Raven prefers V making it. So, not only was V Raven's personal masseuse, but she was also her personal chef.  I remember one occasion before we really figured out that it was her preference to have V make her food, V and I were hanging out late one afternoon to watch a movie. V went into the kitchen to heat up her coffee and Raven followed her in and started melting down. Meowing and screaming at her. V asked what her problem was. I looked at the time and figured it out real quick. It was close to dinner time and she wanted V to make it for her. Smart girl knew 1 out of 2 that feed her was in the kitchen, so she took full advantage. I replied to V with, "look at the time. She wants you to make her dinner".

I think V's success rate for Raven eating all of it was 99.9%.  V would often send me pictures of Raven's perfectly finished dish while I was away. I didn't keep any of those, but she rubbed it in my face often. As a joke, of course. This whole not eating dinner for me just continued to get worse. It got to the point that I wanted her to have that little bit of wet every day, so even though I wasn't away, V would come in as much as possible and make her dinner. Of course Raven ate it! If V and I were making plans and it was somewhere around Raven's dinner time, V would say, "Don't worry about Raven's dinner. I'll make it when I get there."  I even had V show me what she does differently. Honestly, other than mixing it better, it wasn't that different. I tried doing it the same way she did and had no luck. Sometimes she would eat more for me than other times. V would come in and look and tell me to, "add more water and move it to the middle of the dish so she can get to it easier". Yep, tried that to - Same result! Raven was just messing with me. 

I asked Raven one night if she wanted dinner (yes, she knew the word well) and repeated it for each of the three pictures that I took. Her look almost says, "Yes, I do, but not from you. Are you going to call V over? 

The other major difference between the two of us feeding Raven dinner comes from an instruction I gave to V when I first started going away. I instructed her to leave the kitchen when Raven ate dinner, because she liked to eat it in peace. Nope - turns out that only applied to me. V could do whatever she wanted in the kitchen while she was eating dinner. Turns out Auntie Billy could do whatever she wanted in the kitchen while Raven ate dinner as well.  

Another quirk Raven had about food was with her dry food. She had an oval dish and for some reason she would only eat the food out of the left side of the dish. It it was over on the right side, she wouldn't touch it. If she saw you move it over, she wouldn't touch it. You had to be sneaky about it so she couldn't see or hear you moving it over. Over time, I noticed that every time V came over, she would habitually move Raven's dry food over, even when I was home. I thought that was so sweet.  It worked both ways really.  I would do all the normal things with the dogs when I was over there. Just habits! I remember V and I were at the vet during the 2012 fiasco and they suggested that I put food all over the living room for Raven to hunt to help her lose a bit of weight. I think V and I both laughed. I said, "First off, Raven has absolutely no hunting skills or desire to hunt food, bugs, birds or anything else. Second, Raven won't take treats off the stool in the kitchen and she won't eat out of the right side of her dish. She's not going to eat in the living room." V chimed in and said, "It's true."

This is certainly not the last post about their bond, but on a quick final story on this post, V was sometimes Raven's personal chauffeur too. We took Raven in for her annual exam one year and Raven was freaked out and hiding. Oddly, Raven never used to be afraid of the vet, but that was the first visit after she had to go to the emergency hospital for a reaction to a vaccine. She eventually got back to the point where her vet teams could do anything to her and she was calm. Hence "calmest cat we've ever dealt with", but in the mean time, V took the opportunity to capture the Raven's fear.

Raven really is under there - She thinks we can't see her!

I lifted the towel and V got the perfect shot. She looks so scared though :( Look at those eyes

I will end part two here, but this is to be continued with plenty more to come.

*For the beginning of the story, see November 2014*

*Disclaimer - I do not proof-read anything I write, so if there are typos, please excuse them.