We received so many beautiful heartfelt submissions for our “A Letter to my Cat” giveaway when we asked I HAVE CAT fans to write to one of their cats expressing their love and gratitude.
All of the letters were touching, and I hope you go to the original post, scroll down, and read all the beautifully written submissions. I know you’ll relate to some, if not all of the letters in one way or another. They may bring tears to your eyes or get you choked up a, but they are beautiful and give a person faith in humanity and the pure love and healing power of a feline companion.
Okay, Petie isn’t REALLY on the cover of the book, in he is in my mind’s eye!
“A Letter To My Cat: Notes to Our Best Friends” is a compilation of letters and photos of celebrities singing the praises of the felines who do or have graced their lives. The book was compiled by Lisa Erspamer, who was kind enough to select the two winners of our special giveaway! Here’s what she said about the two letters she chose as winners of our giveaway, Heather M and Lisa Alexander:
- Heather M – “I love how Doodoo Brown helped Heather move past a bad relationship. Pets truly have the power to help us overcome the worst obstacles in life. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such unconditional love.
- Lisa Alexander – “It’s so true that cats – and all pets – will never be disappointed in us. They don’t have that power to see all of the mistakes we’ve made and judge…they simply adore us for being there. We could definitely learn a thing or two from our cats.”
For your reading pleasure, I’m including in this post, their entire letters along with photos of the authors and their cats enjoying their generous prize pack (a copy of the book along with other fun kitty treats!).
Letter from Lisa Alexander to Kaboodle:
It seems Kaboodle prefers Lisa’s prize to his own! LOL! Cats, always want what they can’t have (or isn’t their’s!).
Dear Doodoo Brown:
We only met because of that big loser I was dating, and for that, I can’t fully regret having been with him. He was miserable in his new apartment, and I suggested a cat friend to make him happier. He wanted a black cat, a kitten, and when my coworker brought in a photo of two kittens she found in her garage with no mom cat to be found, he chose you. And oh, how glad I am of that.
There’s Doodoo loving on the fortune cookie and mesmerized by another one of his toy prizes! @tirofortunato
I was shocked when they brought you to me: you were too young to be away from your momma, with your big blue eyes. You had ear mites and were so lethargic, I worried about you from the start. You also smelled pretty bad, let’s be honest.
I cleaned you up and treated your ears and fed you lots of kitten milk, and you sprung into life in a big way! Not least of which was farting more often, and more audibly, than any cat I’d ever been around in my life. He wanted to name you something cutesy, feminine, but no. I knew you were different, so I insisted on naming you.
Doodoo is a good and generous kitty, sharing his winnings with his kitty siblings @tirofortunato
And once you got going, you were so fierce! I brought you home to stay with me, and, despite your especially teeny size, you didn’t hesitate to take on the three much larger adult cats in the house. You bossed them from day one, and dominated that food bowl!
Heather with her book – I hope she has a chance to read it given all the interest the cats seem to have in it! @tirofortunato
Your fierce little growls as you ate amused me, but also made me sad, that you had been allowed to go hungry, that you didn’t have your mom. You made me laugh, throwing your tiny little body onto cats who were easily 4x your size. As you grew up, you got over the food aggression; you knew your belly wouldn’t ever be empty again. And it took a long time, but after a while, you grew to be normal sized!
Now you are an endless source of amusement: the way you squeal instead of meow, the way you will hiss for reasons none of us can discern, the way you nudge and push and squeeze your way onto my lap, drooling with happiness, every single day.
You are the best furball that ever happened!!
xoxo Love, Me
While I hope you visit the original post and read the submitted letters in full, I wanted to include some excerpts of a few that touched me – both about cats living and those who have left this earth. I’m happy to say there was even a post from a Cat Daddy. I know this makes for a long post, but at the end I did include the letter I wrote to my first cat. Kip.
Please free, even though the giveaway is over, to add a letter to your cat as a comment to this post, we’d all love to read it.
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My Darling Orion, There you were, such an orange floofball of talkativeness, meowing your heart out for some food and attention. I couldn’t leave you there… You had to come home …You kept one paw possessively placed on some portion of my body when you first came home, something you still do to this day…You are my little orange love-bug. I can’t bear to think of the day when you will be gone, so I cherish the time we have now…Love, Meowm
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Dear Carmine, When I walked into Pet Smart in June, 2005, I hadn’t planned on adopting a kitty that day… Little did I know just how much you would change my life…You have taught me so much about love. Everyone has always told me that God loves unconditionally, but coming from a family that has a difficult time showing one another love, I never understood what unconditional love was, and I often wondered if it even existed…Carmine, your heart is so big…Shortly after I brought you home, I began my journey of recovery from anorexia, and while it was so difficult, you inspired me to keep going..It has been your love as well as your strength through your own struggles with medical issues that has inspired me never to give up…I will forever be thankful to you for how you have changed my life and for all the lessons you’ve taught me. I love you, Carmine. Love, Mom (Fur Everywhere)
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Dear Rocky, I’ve communicated with you for so long without words that to try to find them now has me at a loss…For fifteen years, you were my friend, my enemy, my baby, the pain in the ass that peed on my bed when I was out of laundry quarters at midnight, and the tiny little guy that pressed his nose to mine that day in the adoption room so long ago. I was only 19….If anyone ever looked up to a cat, it was me to you. …Without you, I wouldn’t have a blog. I wouldn’t have a web series. I would never have been to Sundance…I wouldn’t have the voice that I have now to be able to speak out for homeless pets. I knew you were special, but it took 15 years to unfold all the nuances of your amazing being. You were the best damned cat actor that ever graced the screen and have brought joy to hundreds of thousands of people. You, sir, were a gift…I love you, Rocky. And I will never forget everything you brought to my life. Peabody misses you a lot…You’re always in my heart. I can still hear your meow, the tiny voice that no one expected. Love, Mom.(CatInTheFridge)
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To my forever Queen Simba:… Thank you for teaching me the meaning of strength. When you found me on the street, you were a ghost of a cat, rail-thin, covered in sores, living literally on the edge… Through it all, you were a regal presence, up to the time when your strength ran low and you lay beside me, holding hands, and ascended. I know you are up there watchin’ with love and concern, just as I know you told me shortly after you left us that I needed to adopt a needy kitten rescued off other mean streets where we now lived by our vet tech. That kitten, wild and remote at first, has grown to be your successor queen, with a good measure of your strong, loving spirit always apparent… I look at Rani and I see a lot of you in her, my beloved Simba. And a greater tribute I could not imagine. Love, Jamaka and the family
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Darling Casper, Until you and your too soon departed brother Tinker came into my life I’d never really been a cat lady. I grew up with dogs, you know this as I tell you whenever we play fetch. Even though I knew Molly for about half her life she never considered me one of her people….But you came into my life as a bundle of fur just twelve weeks old…You mourned as much as I did when Tinker died – but you tried to comfort me too. You tried to take on many of the little things that had been ‘his’…Of course I think you are the most handsome cat, the most individual, the most empathetic. I will remember 13 August forever; as that is the day I met you….I got married on 13 July – so 13 really is my lucky number and there is nothing unlucky about my little black cat. In my heart forever Mummy-Nat
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Dear Abby, How could they? You were six weeks old and they abandon you at a park. They threw you away like you were a piece of trash. We found you in the top of a tree, you were so tiny and so afraid. It took some doing to get you down but when we did it was magical. The second I took you in my arms I knew that we would be together for a very long time. I told you that everything would be alright, that I would love you and take care of you forever, that you would never ever have to be afraid again…And who would have ever thought that when we put your image on a t-shirt it would change our lives? People all over the world know and love you….my little abandoned park cat. I saved you…and you saved me right back! You will always be my love, my special little girl. I love you!! Mom (Toni of RC Tees)
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Dear Wasabi , You were ours before you were even born. We wanted a male siamese…As you grew older, you would grab my ankles as I walked by and I drug you around the house like that. In never dreamed you would grow up to take care of me. Like the time I mixed up my insulin and accidentally took an overdose. When paramedics arrived, you were pawing and nudging my unconscious body. You refused to leave my side. Every time they took you off me you came right back. They almost had to take you to the hospital with me. Even now, when I feel bad, every 20 minutes or so you get right in my face and smell my breath…. If my sugar is low, you meow and escort me to the refrigerator for juice. You are my beautiful long-haired flame point beauty. And I love you so much and appreciate you taking care of me. Annie
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Dear Salvador: I fell in love with you before I even met you…I was on a pet adoption site and I was scrolling through the many kittens that where in need of a forever home. My eyes stopped on you and we have been inseparable ever since….I feel blessed to start a new day with you. Some days are a challenge to get started, but I know that you are there to help keep me aware that not all days are good, but there is something good in each day. I can always count on you for being what is good in my world….Dearest Salvador, you have been my breath when I thought that I could no longer breathe. You have brought me immeasurable comfort and strength and I want you to know that you have lived up to your name. It is funny how life can imitate art, right? …one of my former high school classmates, who was an exchange student from Spain, saw a picture of you on the internet. He…. commented on your name. He stated, “Did you know that Salvador means Savior in Spanish?” I was in complete awe and my heart was heavy after reading that. Salvador, I have found a Savior in you. Thank you for being such a blessing to me. You are my earth angel. All my love, Julie (on Facebook at Cle Julie.)
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My dearest Faith, You entered this harsh world alone, with no one to love you or look after you. Your stark white beauty was a contrast to the dark and ugly world on the streets…I don’t know what was going through your mind when you thought you could make it across the road safely, but you tried. I saw you dart out in before the truck that was driving in front of me. I prayed for the truck to slow down, but he didn’t. He hit your skinny little body and kept going, never looking back…You were in pain…I said, it would be “Ok” in my attempt to keep you calm, but I saw that the life had left you the moment I scooped you up. The vets saw your condition and rushed you back to try to save you. They tried…and they couldn’t. I tried…and I couldn’t. You entered this world without someone there to lovingly give you a name, but I did. I named you Faith, because you had faith that you could make it across the street and I had faith that your life could be saved. But after all of that heartbreak, I have faith that you are in the happiest place on Earth now: a place that I pray to make it to. You are now free of pain, hunger and fear. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, but I know you are running around with my cats that have previously passed on and you are looking down on me and my own, very lucky cats. I couldn’t imagine writing a letter to them, when they live such a beautiful life with me. You never got a chance to know love and security, but I hope you know that I think of you often and wish I could have done more. So continue to run and chase butterflies, you perfect little angel. All my love, Jamie
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Well Timmy we are too late for the contest but not too late for me to say how you have changed my life. You came to me at a time when I had a lot of negative…I was hesitant to bring you home as my Inky was 21 at that time. He was cantankerous and set in his ways and I did not really want to impose on him in any way. Well you dear rescuer had other ideas…You came home on a trial basis that lasted 10 minutes until I knew you were a special little guy. When I got home from work you would follow me around looking up and talking about your day and I would tell you of mine. At night you made it a point to make sure the bed was safe by running under the covers and checking for what i do not know but it was important. Today you are still a constant companion always by my side. You have also welcomed some others into our home and are the glue that keeps this family running with harmony Timmy you are my best friend. Thanks for all you have given me. Dad Pete
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My sweet baby, Charlie…I am not even sure if I possess the words to tell you what you mean to me…You were strong and brave even before you could see or hear. I was holding you looking at your sweet face when I wiped the goop out of your eyes and then they finally opened. My face was your first sight and I’ll never forget how you looked at me. You’ve been with my fiancé and I through good times and bad. You cuddled me at night when we were sleeping in hotels. I spent my last dollars on you to make sure you could eat before we did….You loved me when I was dependent on substances to make me feel better. You loved me when I was trying to get clean. You didn’t care if I was mad or angry or crazy, you still curled up on me every night. You loved me when we had only a twin air mattress to sleep on…You were the only one I had when Micah and I took a break to better ourselves. You never forgot about him and licked my face when I’d cry for him at night. You ran to him meowing when we got back together and got a place.
You kneaded on my belly and slept between my legs when you knew there was a baby inside me. You never left my side when I lost that baby. You played and kept me up all morning when I finally felt better. You started kneading and laying on my belly again when God gave us the opportunity to have another one. Now the baby is growing big and strong and I can tell you love him/her already. Thank you Charlie for never judging me, for never caring if I had money, thank you for understanding that daddy and I needed space and not holding that against him. Thank you for always being my baby no matter how big you get. You saved my life and have kept our little family happy and going strong. Mommy, daddy and baby love you always and furrever <3<3<3
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Dear Max . . .or Maxie, Maxilla, Max Epstein, and all your other aliases. No matter what I called you, you were always there for me. You and I actually grew up together. I was 23 when you found your way to me and 40 when you left me. I can never move from this house because your resting place is in the back yard. You’ve been gone for 25 years, and I still miss you so much. The four cats in my present life are wonderful, but you will always be the one who knew me best …I promised you that our second move to California would be your last move, and it was—a mixed blessing for us both…You came to me from Bide-a-Wee shelter in NY. My brother brought you to me after my divorce, when I was living alone in a small apartment. I had asked him to bring me a fluffy orange kitten, but you were the only one they had (it was January)…What a character you turned out to be—and what a lover. When I cried, you’d sit by my side…Years later, when I was 37 and you were 14, you stayed by me as I went through cancer treatments. And, although you weren’t sure what to make of Karen when she was born, you were always gentle toward her. …I think I will miss you forever. Love, Rena
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I’m proud to say Kip was featured on the homepage of the “A Letter To My Cat” website and his letter was included as well. But today we reprint it for you on my blog, just in case you don’t know the story and hadn’t yet read it. I hope you enjoy it.
I had no idea what to expect when I adopted you. Never having grown up with pets – unless you count goldfish and a hamster – I was as naïve as they come.
You looked depressed in your cage the day I saw you at Petco. When they placed you in my arms you didn’t put up a flight and flopped right into them. A handsome green-eyed Tabby of uncertain origin, named after the neighborhood where he was found.
You were the perfect lap cat (or so I thought). Having just broken up with a boy, I was looking to be comforted. I needed some kitty snuggling. Being depressed, I figured a depressed cat was the perfect match.
To say I was in for a surprise would be putting it mildly. I’d barely closed the apartment door and opened the carrier when you jettisoned yourself out of it and flew around the apartment. I don’t think you stopped moving for weeks I’d been duped.
I recall coming home from work exhausted and you’d “hide” behind the ottoman expectantly, waiting for me to throw mice for you to “catch.” I did this diligently every evening – because you were so darn cute – with a large glass of red wine in hand. If nothing else, it gave me no time to wallow. Perhaps this was part of some master plan.
You gave me the experiences I hear people with children speak about. You opened my eyes to the wonder of little things. The fascinating movements a cap from a juice bottle made when batted around, the inexplicable beast (my foot) under the sheets that must be “killed.” Even the adorable way you closed your eyes when crunching on a treat.
You’ve always been a one-cat social committee (CAT-mittee?), running to the door greeting friends and strangers alike. Let’s face it, you’re a bit of a slut – or maybe just needy – accepting scratches from the superintendent, UPS man, and even rubbing up against an unsuspecting cereal box if need be. If I’m lucky, I may get my hand in there from time-to-time. Truth be told, it’s one of the things I love about you – how excited you get and trusting you are by the appearance of a new arrival.
Despite your social side, you’re a very perceptive kitty (the other cat are truly rather clueless). After coming home from a hospital procedure, I remember my Mother recounting incredulously that you stood on-guard at the head of the chaise lounge on which I slept, for over an hour. Never leaving to use the litter box or grab a snack.
When I cried over silly boys or was sick in bed you knew just what to do. Plastering your entire body against mine. And staying there for as long I as needed you – or until hunger won out. As the number of cats in our home grew, you naturally took on the role of the caretaker, always ready to give anyone willing (or not) a tongue bathing.
Even now, should one of your plumper siblings stick their head in you food, your only reaction is to back away and look up at me with your big eyes, pleading, waiting to be rescued (Mama’s boy!). Your gentleness in these situations is one of the things I adore about you, and you certainly didn’t get it from me – it must be from your father’s side. Sometimes though, I wish you’d just give them the paw – one good smack on the head so they’d leave you alone. Stand up for yourself Kipper!
The older you’ve gotten, the more loving and cuddly you’ve become. The years have flown by and you’re close to twelve now, officially a senior. It’s a mixed blessing. While I cherish it, as it’s what I always wanted, Kippie the lap-cat. You’re getting thinner and I’m remembering something I failed to consider when I adopted you.
I let you into my home and eventually my heart. A unique little soul and was more than ready to care for you and reap the rewards. But by doing this, I opened myself up for inevitable loss and pain in the future.
How did this not dawn on me that day at Petco? You swept off my feet my handsome Tabby. I was giddy at the thought of you. Isn’t that the way it goes?
I can’t fathom coming to a home absent of greeting me with your gorgeous excited self and eager head-butts. You are my greatest comfort, my sweet, gentle little man. I’m crying just writing this I was fortunate to have you as my first cat. You were always so patient with me. Others told me how lucky I was but I only now understand.
You will always be my first. My handsome green-eyed Tabby boy. No one can ever take that away. Thank you for letting me be your “mom” Kipper. I love you with all my heart and soul. I can only hope I’ve done right by you.
Love, Tamar, your Mommy forever
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I hope you forgive my very long post today and take the time to share a little about a special cat in your life in the comment section. Bless you all for loving cats. I’m glad I saw the light before it was too late for me!
Dear Kaboodle,
I cannot believe you are now 15. We have been thru boyfriends, fiance(s), and aloneness together. We have been thru 352 changes of cat food, 455 cat beds, and lots of hiding in the closet together. We have suffered, and we have had purr time.
We have had companies named after you, wine bottles with your picture, and we even wear our cat ears together.
You are the cowardly lion in feline form. You have a heart the size of Montana. You are gorgeous and have no idea that you are.
You are all goodness and have never disappointed me a day in my life. That is your finest distinction vs humans. So glad we even have an affinity for junk food together.:)
As I watch you closely in what might be our final times together, I admire you, I love you, I will do anything for you to make you happy. I am now buying you heated beds, stainless water fountains, and special litter boxes. I would do anything in my power to make sure your life is comfortable right now. Thank you for being my greatest source of consistency, love and kindness.
And I pray…. in some way, we are together forever.
Love, Your Mommy
The very lovely Lisa Alexander with Kaboodle, and on the set of SNL with resident walk-on “actor” (the Llama! lol!)
Letter from Heather M to Doodoo Brown: