Happy Birthday, Margaret Cat!

Margaret enjoyed a serving of fresh dried catnip for her 19th birthday, thats' 98 in human years.

Fake Fur Throw Cat Birthday Gift

It was a wild and crazy birthday for Margaret, my 19-year old Rolla Animal Shelter alumni cat. Margaret and I share a birthday January 2, the best guestimate the vet and I came up with on her birthday.

Margaret is part-Siamese and has the unique voice to prove it. She's also a very fun-loving cat, even as she marks the equivalent of 98 years in human years. She still has selective hearing but her eyesight is not as good as it was so I try not to move furniture out of her well-worn paths so she doesn't bump into things unless she wants to do so.

Like me. At 7 a.m. Make that 7:30 a.m. and I'm trying to sleep in. Not so fast, Margaret seems to say as she head bumps me to get me out of bed for her breakfast.

This birthday morning, I surprised her by being up early and having a special breakfast ready. Breakfast included a serving of fresh dried catnip out of my garden served in a basket where she could roll in it and Margaret jumped right in. She didn't have to see where the catnip was, she could smell it and didn't wait to wallow in it until she was tired and ready for a morning nap.

What does one give a cat who has everything? Since temperatures are in the single digits, I gave her a fake fur throw the same color as her real fur so she could curl up and stay warm. Can you tell the cat from the fur throw?

Margaret curled up in her fake fur throw birthday gift after a roll in fresh dried catnip.

Celebrating a birthday can be exhausting, apparently. Well, maybe not the birthday itself so much but that fresh dried catnip....

Margaret yawning as she settles in to enjoy her birthday gift.

Before the dried catnip got scattered all over the house by her feline friends, I tucked Margaret into her birthday gift and left her to settle in. Sometimes she takes exception to being placed in a throw so I wasn't sure what she would think of this gift. No doubt my other cats will enjoy it but with Margaret, one never knows.

When I got back, it was obvious she was still celebrating - Margaret style. I could hear her purring loud and clear as I rounded the sofa so I would say the gift was a hit.

Happy 19th birthday, Margarita!

Charlotte