This post is not going to be anything like my other ones.  You won't see a lot of photos.  It's not going to be a very long.  Just wanted to say something that I've always known but has hit me very hard today.  Time passes quickly... Really quickly!

Our oldest cat,  Chanel, turned 14 on May 29 this year.  We adopted she and her sister, Coco, when they were eight weeks old.  Unfortunately Coco developed cancer when she was four years old.  We did everything we could.  She passed away when she was just shy of her sixth birthday.  I wrote about her extensively on this blog.  

Heart broken by Coco's passing, I stopped blogging as much about our pets and animal rescue.    I decided to travel to Hawaii to get my initial and then my advanced yoga teacher certification.  I then decided to do some traveling and made it to all seven continents.  I switched from blogging about my pets and animal rescue to my travels on a separate blog.

I can't say that I regret traveling and doing some things for myself.  At the time I needed something.  I needed to run away from the pain.  Losing a pet to cancer at such a young age was difficult and just more than I could handle.

Today my husband noticed that Chanel is limping quite badly.  She can still jump and she is eating well.  It is just such a reminder that she is getting old as well as our other cats.  I had just been thinking the last few days how I missed writing on this blog.  Looking through it I am so glad that I did write what I did.  My photos are not great but they mean the world to me!  

I am hoping to do a little bit of writing about our cats and get some photos of them in the coming months.  I haven't traveled as much in the last year.  While I loved traveling and taking photos.  My real passion is my pets and animal rescue.

It seems like yesterday that Coco and Chanel were being adopted at eight weeks old.  I want to focus on this blog and our pets.  I am hoping that I can record some more memories.

About the Chanel and I on her 14th birthday.  

Below is a photo of Coco and Chanel together. with our Christmas card about 12 years ago.  They were only about two years old.

 Thanks so much for visiting.  Hopefully I will make more sense during my next post.  

~Michelle

One of my main goals for 2016 was to take some photos of my cats that I am proud of.  I wrote about it on this post.  I will be honest with you, it's it's not been as easy as I thought it would be.  Cats move very quickly and some of mine our seemingly camera shy.  The above photo of my oldest named Chanel (a Himalayan Persian rescue cat) is especially camera shy so I was happy to get this shot of her.

The title of this post " Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls" was taken from the movie "The Titanic" .  This movie came out in 1997.  It's hard for me to believe it is almost a twenty-year-old movie as people still watch it a lot nowadays.

As you can see Fleur LOVES the camera.  She seems to like posing in front of flowers.  She was found in a flower bed when she was only a few weeks old almost 9 years ago.  We took her in as a foster cat around that time.  I think after nine years she will be with us for good ;)

 Here is another of my "foster" cats named Peanut.  He will be 10 years old this fall.  I'm grateful that he is not very camera shy either!

And here is peanut again while I am practicing with a new Focus type lens that I've been having a tough time learning to use:

Here are some of my very camera shy kitties.  The black one is named Princess and is about nine years old.  The Siamese looking one is named Sasha who just turned six.  The Tortoiseshell cat is named Piney.  Piney is FIV positive and about  four years old.  She is kept healthy with a fairly new drug the few people know about called T-cyte.  Many people ask me if it is expensive.  It costs us about $60 dollars each time she gets a shot which is about twice a year.  

 Here is peaches sporting her lion cut.  She is normally very fluffy so we get her groomed during the summer because it's so hot here in Florida.  Peaches is also FIV positive. We took her in more than two years ago when she was found nursing seven two week old kittens next to a dumpster.  We took her to the vet the next day and learned she was F I V positive.  Only two of the kittens tested FIV positive, but after six doses of T-cyte when they were very young they became negative.  T-cyte truly is a miracle drug in my opinion.

We don't know peaches exact age.  All of our cats are rescues so we don't know most of their exact birthdays.  The only one we know for sure is our oldest who is pictured at the top she was born in her foster home on May 29, 2004.

Lastly I will leave you photos of Elizabeth and Jasmine.  They are sisters who are approximately 10 years old.  Elizabeth, pictured first, looks like she got into my eyeliner.  They were the first foster cats that we took in.  They were very lucky to survive as they were found in a barn in the middle of the winter in Ohio.  Their mother had been stepped on by a horse.  Luckily they are happy and healthy cats now. 

I think Jasmine tries to make me feel guilty when I'm packing to go out of town :)

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my first kids.  I will continue to work on their portraits throughout 2016 and beyond.  I would love to hear your comments and advice on taking pictures of pets.  As always you can use my photo for free using my Pixabay account here.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

~Michelle

Please see this company's wonderful pet toys here:

The Natural Pet Company

Peanut loves the pink and purple jingle balls:

 
I was thrilled to receive an e-mail from Florina at "The Natural Pet Company" regarding their new company that makes wonderful and NATURAL pet toys.  She had read my blog and was wondering if I would be willing to write a post about their new toys.  I normally don't write sponsored posts - this is my first actually, but Florina had read my entire blog so I knew her e-mail was legit.  After doing some research on this company I decided that I wanted to try and help them get some publicity for these very durable, attractive, and affordable products that I will be buying more of for all of my cats and many foster kitties that come in and out of my home.  Best of all these toys are fun for the cats to play with, safe, and natural!  

As you can see Peanut and Princess were very excited about their special delivery!

The natural and as you will see irresistible catnip:  http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Quality-Catnip-Absolutely-Guarantee/dp/B00CORO4EU arrived very quickly!  I did not have to open the bag of catnip...Peanut took care of that!!!

Here are the adorable and natural items they sent my cats  =^..^=   Here is their link at Amazon: The Natural Pet Company

   Here I am playing with our newest rescue cat.  His name is Jack, a one year old Maine Coon who weighs fourteen pounds!  Maybe you can tell from the photo that he really enjoyed the cat nip ;)  

Some of the catnip spilled on the couch and there was no tearing Chanel and Peanut away from it!
Jack loved the "mouse on a string toy"!!!

Fleur and Lizzie were thrilled to have some new cat toys  to play with too!  http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Toys-Megapack-Interactive-Accessories/dp/B00CYRUIU4

Sasha and Jasmine loved the pretty pink and purple jingle balls!
Sasha wanted to play all night!  Unlike my other cats, she has endless amounts of energy!

Jasmine went to sleep cuddled up with the ball

 I didn't have the heart to take it away from her little paws and she was purring so loudly :)

Final Thoughts

The Natural Pet Company  is a new company that is creating high quality, well priced, and fun toys for cats of all ages.  The shipping is lightening fast as well!  The catnip is all natural and my cats acted and played like they were in heaven.  I will definitely be following  The Natural Pet Company on Facebook and be purchasing more of these fantastic toys for all of my cats and the many foster kitties that pass in and out of my home.  

Below is a photo of Peaches with her seven - 7 orange kittens that we found homes for this summer.

Thanks so much for stopping by and please remember to visit:

Our website: http://www.thenaturalpetcompany.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thenaturalpetcompany 

AND visit their site to try some of these amazing catastic products here:  

The Natural Pet Company

Coco
May 29th, 2005 - March 19 2010

"Do not stand on my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in the circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die."
- Unknown

Here is Coco's sister Chanel sitting next to Coco's urn:

 Here is Peanut sleeping on Coco's treasure box of favorite toys and other special items:

One of my favorie photos of Coco.  She was in a remission at the time that lasted about a year.  No matter what was happening then, everything seemed great during this time:

Here is Sasha.  We adopted her five weeks to the day after Coco passed away.  She had just barely gotten to the shelter so we had to take her straight to the vet.  The vet said she was five weeks old.
Coco's photo albums and memory book:

 


I was able to record a lot of great memories and characteristics of Coco's personality in these books.  Making it and having it are very helpful.  Our other pets and Sasha have been good too. Sasha is A LOT like Coco <3

I hope this didn't make anyone sad.  It wasn't meant to.  Thanks for stopping by :)