My name is Brenda and I'm a student at East Central Community College. I'm the daughter of a civil engineer and a hairdresser. I've lived in Georgia, Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. I haven't done all the traveling on my own. My father, on the road to professional success in his government job, was transferred and traveled a lot. By the time I was eighteen years old I had been in most of the 50 United States. The longest time I ever lived in one place, before we moved to Pennsylvania, was 5 years. I call Pennsylvania home because I finally put down roots and stayed for 40 years.
Although travel has always been fun for me, moving from place to place, and from state to state, left me rather lonely. I was one of 5 children and we have remained close, but as I grew and matured, I wanted close friends. Our lifestyle didn't really support that yearning. We didn't have Internet, so staying close to old friends was difficult. My always enduring friends were our pet dogs. From them I got understanding and unconditional love. I have learned so much from my pets over the years. 
Elsa is the dog I remember the best. She was a Christmas gift when I was 11 years old. Elsa was a mix of a Pomeranian, a Sheltie, and a Chihuahua, as best we can tell. She was my best friend all through my teenage years. She had a unique rapport with children. Although she loved my parents, she was especially protective of my brothers and sisters and I. She was a small dog, probably only weighing in at thirty five pounds, but she had a lions heart when it came to her kids. My father, not really a dog lover, once tried to awaken my sister and I from our shared bedroom for school one morning. My father reported that Elsa had been sleeping on the foot of one of our beds, as was her fashion, and when the door opened, she became alert instantly. As soon as he entered the room, she flew off the bed like she had been given wings, barking and snarling, intent upon attacking him. He retreated quickly to the safety of the hallway, and she became docile again. He tried several times to enter our bedroom and was met with the same ferocity. There were many other instances of her protective nature as we grew up together. She was never punished for her bad behavior, because my father knew that she would protect us against all odds.
Elsa was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with dogs. There have been many others since her brief appearance in my life. There were also cats in my life, but not until I had reached adulthood. As a child I was allergic to cat dander, and as we often do when we cant have something, I convinced myself that it was alright; I hated cats anyway. There came a time when my father accepted yet another transfer to another state. I was in my early twenties at the time, and had a boyfriend and those ubiquitous beings known as friends. I had always been a rebellious person and I stood my ground and refused to pack up and move with the family. My sister had just graduated from the School of Nursing at Villanova University and it seemed like a great time to declare my independence. With Mom and Dad and my younger siblings off to Stillwater, Oklahoma, I set out to make my mark on the world. They, of course took my pet dogs with them. As a young woman starting out on my own, I reasoned that it was for the best. I had friends and a boyfriend and who needed dogs anyway. Soon, however, I realized that I needed pets of some kind to make my new apartment feel like a home. I had been surrounded by family members and pets my whole life, and the sounds of my own voice ringing off of the bare walls of my one bedroom home was just too lonely, and so I was soon in search of my first pet or pets, as an adult. It was a frightening prospect to have someone counting on me for everything but I had a very solid base growing up. I was prepared for just about anything. I asked everyone I knew about puppies. Dad had always just showed up with one under his coat. I had no idea where to find the ideal baby. As always, immediate gratification was my main goal, and no puppy was out there for me, or at least not on that day that I decided to begin, and finish accomplishing this all important goal. After making several phone calls to friends and acquaintances, shelters, and veterinarians offices, I abandoned my search for the perfect puppy. I had heard from someone who had been told by someone else that there was a litter of kittens looking for a home. I made the brief trip to the kitten house, took one look at the innocent kitten babies curled up next to each other in a tangled ball, and fell head over heels in love with not one, but two long haired domestic kittens, who in the next few weeks would become the loves of my life and the beginning of my love affair with cats.
I look back and think about what a daunting task I had undertaken. I was barely a baby and I could hardly take care of myself, but here I was making life and death decisions for two of the sweetest cats I had ever seen. Those first few weeks were full of excitement. I had never even held a kitten and now I was Mom to two of them. Murphy, named in honor of Meridian, Mississippi, and Oakie, for Oklahoma, were my fur kids and I wanted to make sure that they had the best of everything. In the first place, they were, as my mother said, deformed. They had polydactyl feet. Poly means many and dactyl refers to digits or toes.....so, many toes. One cat had six toes on each fore paw and the other had seven toes and eight claws. I had heard stories about cats destroying furniture by clawing on it, so I taught myself how to clip kitty claws. I was determined that they be indoor cats, so I had to find some sort of indoor activities for them, so out of my meager weekly income, I bought my first piece of cat furniture. I was also concerned about discipline. I had never disciplined a cat before and I was afraid I would do it wrong. I know in the first few days after I brought Murphy and Oakie home my vet thought I was absolutely crazy because I was full of questions and he was the only person I knew who could answer them. I finally got over my jitters and began to enjoy my two babies. I know I made mistakes but they forgave me, as only a pet animal can. As they grew and matured I realized that their behavior was more dog like than catlike. I hadn't known how to raise a cat but I had some experience at raising dogs. Murphy was great at playing fetch. Oakie always came when she was called. I have some very fond memories of my first cats. They will stay with me forever. 
