Insights Into Teens: Episode 59 "A Tribute to Dorian"

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insightful podcasts, informative hosts insights into a podcast

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network. Welcome to insights into teens, A podcast series exploring the issues and challenges of today's youth. Your hosts are Joseph and Madison Whelan. A father and daughter team making their way through the challenges of the teenage years, huh? Welcome to insights into Teens. This is Episode 59. A tribute to Dorian. I'm your host, Joseph Whelan, and my co host and slightly composed daughter, Madison Whelan Here is with us. And joining us today for a special guest appearance is Mommy. Michelle. Well, hi, everyone. Guess it helps everybody off mute. Otherwise you're all okay. I got too many buttons to push today because we got somebody presentation, you know? So okay. Yes, today is a tribute to door in, um, if you passed away, actually, shortly after the podcast last week, when we came out of the podcast, she was having some. She was having some some medical issues. Difficulties breathing. Why don't you just walk us through how last week with, um so last week was, you know, a normal week. Um, you know, we because of the school being, you know, on remote learning, and you know. I was working from home. Madison and I were home, you know, all day. And, um, Friday morning, we noticed Dorian just wasn't herself.

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No, she's

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had various medical, uh, issues. She was blind at this point in her life, and we knew she had some sort of like arthritis because of the way that she walked. She had had a stroke or what? We assumed she had had a stroke many months ago, too, but,

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you know, overall. Still getting

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around. Still doing her her cat things. Um, And Friday morning, she just wasn't herself. Um, she was laying in the hallway and like, not just like sitting, laying, like, just laying flat down. And she was open mouth breathing. Um, and cats don't do that. So you know that it's something wrong and she didn't want to really eat. We brought her some treats. She had a couple of them. She didn't really want to drink anything. She

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could go to the

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litter box, you know. And at one point, she actually just lied in the litter box. When, when she was done. Um, so I had called the vet, and unfortunately, our normal vet wasn't available she was off that day. So they had suggested, you know, calling another vet. And, you know, we're taking her to an animal hospital. Um, first, I was like, Well, let's just kind of see how it is because she's, you know, she had a cold a couple months back. She had that cat, um, ring around sending anything Where where she would just walk around in a circle.

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You know, so and most things, you know, a couple of days and she's kind of back toe

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normal. This was not something that was gonna was gonna be fixed just without medical attention. Um, So you guys came up to do your podcast, and I was sitting with her, and she was, you know, just not herself. I tried cuddling with her and she actually jumped off of the couch, jumped off of me and just laid on the floor. And that was when I knew she had toe go to the hospital. And when we had to see, So the problem is, she really had was that she was having difficulty breathing, was having difficulty breathing, so we didn't really know. So there was a part of me that was hoping it was a quick, easy fix. But there was that other part of me that new that she was, you know, at the end of things. So So we took her to the animal hospital, took her to an animal hospital We had never been to before. And, um, you know, they they were great. You know? Unfortunately, because Dorian's blind like, she doesn't, you know, she couldn't see who was, you know, doing anything to her. So she did kind of have, like, a little panic attack. They said they did have toe, you know, sedate her. Um, she was having issues breathing, so they actually put her on oxygen. Um, which, you know, is basically they put him in a cage that, you know, there's oxygen oxygen tent for Yeah, you know, um, you know, and the vet came out and spoke with us. Um, and she said, you know, that they'd have to, you know, do certain procedures toe really find out what's wrong? Because they couldn't really tell. Um, you know, they were pretty sure it was one of two things. It was either heart failure or it was cancer. And you had discovered a lump on her, right? I have, uh, probably a couple of weeks ago when I was petting her, I did feel a lump, and it was one of those. She was an older cat, and as long as she was comfortable and she didn't seem to be in pain, I didn't want to put more stress on her because she already had high blood pressure. And any time the vet had been out to see her, she would always, you know, because again, because she was blind. You know, cats, cats in general don't like doctors. Most people don't like doctors. Um, so because she was blind, you know her. I will say that all of our cat, she was probably the less prone to spies ing out. Oh, absolutely. Well, Andi other cats, because our vet is actually they make house calls, and our other two cats actually have to be sedated. In order for that, it's He drugged the cat. Where's during? You know, Dori would always be like, whatever. I'm here. Um, you know, So, unfortunately, you know, as she got older, you know, she would freak out a little bit more. Um, so that was obviously putting strain on on everything you know as well. Um so as it was a very hard decision to make, I knew it's what she would've wanted, you know, if we had done all the tests money being no option. You know, if if money was not even a factor in it And you know, just the fact that she would have had to stay one or two nights for observation and have all these different procedures. And b, you know, we really don't know how old Hold she waas. Um I don't know if she would have Yuman made it through any of those procedures to even find out what what was wrong. So ultimately, we made the decision based on the doctor's recommendation. Really? To put her down right, which the doctor said was probably the best idea, right? And then that kind of made it feel a little bit better. Right? Um, you know, to do it that way, and that's that's I mean, that's always a difficult decision with a really, you know, you and I have had to make that decision with parents as well. So it's it's it's a burden. But I didn't want to make today's episode a cry fast, although, you know, the video kind of helps with that. But But I wanted us to celebrate, you know, our memory of during and all the good times we had. So you would mention that we don't know how old she is explained to us why we don't. So we moved into our house in that saying, When when did we move in? Uh, she was three. She was three. So 10 years ago, we moved into the house. Um, and, you know, every now and then you get some random animal, you know, wander wandering, you know, across your lawn or whatever. And it was around the beginning of December of 2010 and this gray cat started coming around, Um, and, you know, snowy weather and, you know, and ah, being that we had, you know, a cat. At that point, we only had had fluffer, didn't we only had the one cat. I left food out for her, so we had cat food. You know, we have a big way were a cat family. Um, and we started, you know, leaving her food and ah, she

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would you know, Come around And we'd see your, you know,

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once a day and then, you know, we'd see your every couple of days and, you know,

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and she would just sit on our deck, sit upon the relic. I think, um and I think we started

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feeding her like, every morning. Or we would give her a treat, lead

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stuff out and that she would start stalking us because she would sit up on on the deck

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on the railing because she could look into the kitchen and she would like. And as soon as she saw movement, she would be out there miao ing at us. We even tried, you know, because it was the winter time. We even tried making like, a shelter for her. If you remember, we had gotten, like, a covered, um, litter box cover just so that you come in the house with the right. She wouldn't

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come in the house,

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you know, we tried coaxing or end to come in, and she she was happy sitting outside. Um, and the way that our our front porch is, there's a little bit of an overhang. So a lot of times when it would be raining. She would just be sitting, you know, under, you know, sit on the railing under the overhang. So she didn't She didn't get wet, um, or she would sit the way that our our houses, um it kind of sticks out on the bottom, you know, by the ground and stuff. And she would actually sit there as well if it was, We had a comfortable little multi area there that she was right, and she would just kind of sit there, you know? So how how old do you think she was when she started coming around?

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She was probably She wasn't a kid,

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and she was definitely Ah, grown cat. She was a big cat. Yeah, she was always Yeah, she was always, Ah, big cat. So

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I would

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say she was probably already four or five. So if you figure that and you figure we had, you know, she had us, really for almost 10 years,

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she she was probably 15 or so and and that's that's good

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for a cat. And especially after all the different health issues, you know, that that she

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had she she led a

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really good life. So, Maddie, you were three when she started coming around. What do your earliest memories ever?

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Um, I think some of my earliest memories of her were when, like, remember when she was able to go inside. Um, when she did eventually come inside. Um, I would go out with her, and we were just playing the dirt night. Always remember I'd brush off her for because I didn't want her to get dirty.

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Yeah, because she would roll around in the leaves. Yes. She always liked rolling around in the dirt and stuff, and And I remember when you would go out and play like Dorian would follow her around in the backyard, and she was like, old guardian angels. She follow you around and make sure that you know nothing happening when you were outside because they think she kind of sensed how paranoid mommy and Danny were letting you outside stuff like bed. She always kind of, you know, you were outside playing. She needed to be with you, or should be sitting across the street of the neighbors. Watching you write is always watching.

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Yeah. I mean, like, at one point in the video, you see that I'm drawing on the side walking. He just seemed like Dorian is just sitting next to me, watching me, making sure like nothing's happening to me. And also like checking out my early from my early art,

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right? Yeah, she was. She was earliest fan, right? Yeah. So So let's kind of take it back a notch and think of some of the experiences that we've had with during, like, some of the some of the best stories that we've had. Not the bad ones. Get that one. But what's what's your favorite memory of Dorian? Manny?

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Um, I actually have a few. So first is when she used, actually, Um, so at one point when she was blind, uh, she, um this actually happened for a while. A few months back, at least, um, she would wouldn't ever We really, like, ate at our table. She would, like, come up on the chair and, like, she'd asked for food.

spk_0:   17:32
Well, no, she wouldn't ask for it. She had her own chair. She was served.

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Yeah. She wouldn't ask for food.

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She would simply expected. Yeah, we're the wait staff.

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Yes. Oh, Um um, we have a chair. That Mommy, you have a chair next to you. And she would go up there and she had, like, a thing on where, like, she go on the table like she'd smell the food

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at that

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point and you'd be like, Okay, I want food. And, like, Oh, a few times she ended up looking your plate.

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Yeah,

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yeah, yeah, yeah, That was your logic. Like when she looks something, you was hers. And technically, itwas because nobody believes flavors. Um uh,

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What about you, Mommy? What do you What do you What's the fun member you have ever? Um, I think before she, you know, would would come in side because she

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it took her

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almost a year till till she decided, you know, she wanted to come in, and even then she would come in just teat, and then she'd be standing at the door toe to go back out. Um, and we pretty much within I don't know. The first couple of months, we called her door in because she was great running Dorian Gray. Well, everyone she was coming around. We didn't really check to see if she was a boy or girl. We couldn't really tell until a little bit later when we're like

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Oh, look, your girl

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Dorian's find enduring was good because it was gender neutral, Right? Right. She was gender neutral. And what was funny was I started, you know, talking to her and calling her that or or whatever. And I remember there was one day, you know, we had got home from work and from school, and I went

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and I was like, Dorian and all of a

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sudden you see your come out from the woods behind

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too few,

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and she knew her your name, you know, she was like, Oh, that's what I am. And, you know, And you know, she would come and and, ah, you know, get her her food and and stuff like that, so that that was definitely, you know, it was like, all right. And and then when she did, finally, you know, decide to come in. I don't know if you remember, but there was the one morning where I found a tick on myself because that was the thing she she did end up with, you know, ticks on her until we put a collar, a flea collar on her flea and tick collar. And you were like, Nope, she's outside. And I was, like, really upset that, you know, because she was already coming in it and it was funny because she would come in at night. She would sleep either on our bed or on Matty's bed. My logic was over. Other cats were indoor cats, right? So she wasn't like, coming in and like staying downstairs, she was in bed, sleeping with all right, because also, by that point, we ended up with Liotta and Dark. So at one point, we had the four cats, you know, in in the house and stuff. But Dorian never stayed in. She basically stayed in for the night and first thing in the morning, she'd be standing at the door waiting toe to go out and then when we'd come home, you know, like she went out to work that I was

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should go out to

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her day job. And then as soon as we

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came home,

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she'd be sitting like rail. Where and that's sort of one of the one of the fun memories that I have is that when we used to go out, whether we were coming home from work or coming home from vacation or whatever. It was coming home from shopping. She'd hear us coming down the street. And wherever she was sitting, she'd come out and she would wait for us at the bottom of the driveway. And because I used to when I would come home, I would park around the side. So I didn't pull into the driveway so she would come down the driveway knowing it was my car. And then, like, she'd me yell at me like she was all mad, that I wasn't pulling into the driveway and she had to run around the decide to follow. So, yeah, she was She was very protective of all of us. Yeah, definitely. She, you know, she definitely chose chose us. Yeah, you know, and that's the other thing. You know, we've talked about many times. You know, we we adopt it. Dorothy and Liotta, our other two cats, but I think hands down during adopted us. You know, she was here before we got here. And she kind of accepted us into her family because I think you and I agree that she probably was not a fair Okay, right? She she definitely was somebody's cat just because she you know, she was very friendly. Never. Once bit any of us never once scratched any of us. Um, you know, if she attacked any buddy, it would be at the other cats, you know, if she fought with and she wasn't tentative about coming to us, you like? Like she was cautious, like anyone would write, But she didn't have any problems coming to us. Yeah, but I did want to talk briefly about her friendliness. She was a very friendly cat. She was no only friendly, but she was a grateful cat. And she was grateful because we fed her so periodically she would provides. She wanted to pay the lower the area that we live in. There's a couple of wooded areas near us. So there's some some faras forest wildlife little fairy creatures. Yeah, we had fun ease, and we had mice. And we have a few other things around. And in Birch. So Dorian Waas Ah, hunter. And she was pretty good at it. And occasionally, when she had an excess of prizes from her hunt, she would occasionally leave him on our driveway or our sidewalk. Tell us about that doors uh, Madison.

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Okay, So I remember a few times when I was coming when, like, mom and picked me up from maybe like it was second grader. Um, I think it was when I was in Central. Okay, um, you would pick me up, and it was like and we would, like, pull up in the driveway, I'd get out. And, like, right in front of Mae, I would see, like either a bunny or upper,

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partially eaten, partially eaten just enough to subdue it. Right. And, uh, that was her offering to us

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like, Oh, zombie bunny. Okay, you go inside, sweetie. Mommy has to go get a plastic bag and take care of this.

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And then there would be Dorian

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round. Good girl.

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Are you happy with my offering? Is this amount for some more treats

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tonight? I killed that. You cook it so

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But I think I think overall, uh, thanks to her adopting us, I think she had ah, really a much better life. Like I can only imagine how difficult, uh, her life would have been with the medical issue she ran into Had she not been with us because after she had what we assume is the stroke. She lost her saying she wasn't getting around. She became a house cat against, you know, her wishes, right? Because up until then, she was still going out. Yeah, you know, for a little bit,

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you know, and she didn't go

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out for very

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long. She would go out,

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smell the flowers, going some grass and then, you know, come back inside. So, Mommy, tell us a little bit about why you kept her in at that point displayed, you know, her desire to go out because I was afraid she was gonna get hurt, you know, and especially once she had cause when she has she had the stroke first. And she could still see, um, at that point. But she had, you know, she was definitely having difficulty moving. And

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we don't live on

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a very busy street. But there are some neighbors that tend to speed faster than others. And I was really concerned for her going outside because she did like to cross the street to go into the woods that are across from us. Tow hunter or do whatever you know it is that she

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did so I was really concerned about

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her doing that. Um, so the one summer after she had had the stroke, um, she would have supervised time out. Uh, you know, outside I would take her outside and I would watch where she would go, and she would just kind of look at me like Ray all I can do that. Me like, No. And then as soon as she would start going to the street, I would go in and stand in

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front of

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her. Unfortunately, since she, you know, wasn't her normal self, she didn't, like dart off, you know, and run. Sure. She was a lot slower, you know? So I could control her. And I would tell her No, you need to stay here. You need to stay on the grass. You need to stay on our property. And then she would just sit there and, like, ran. So So we've had a couple of colorful incidents, a colorful $1 reading. So many tell us about the time that we moved your bedroom and how the effective

spk_1:   26:58
God. OK, so at the time we move my bedroom when we turned my bedroom into the studio, um, she was blind at that point and Stephen Blind for a few months. For the last few months that I was in here on dhe. She had actually had a little spot because my bed was up high because we had multiple mattresses on it. And there was this one little spot in between my dresser and my bed, and we had had a blanket there, and she would just sleep in there. It was like a usual spot. But when we moved my bedroom, that really kind of confused her because we had to move the blanket. We had to, like, move everything. And then, like like during the whole process, we were moving everything she would like. Like she would just periodically just come in. And at one point, she was like looking for the blanket, and it wasn't there. And at one point she ended up going in the one corner about you. Um, because that's where we ended up putting the blanket. I also remember when we used to have my desk, um, over, um, where mommy sitting. She would just sit under there because she thought it was safe

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and it was

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kind of funny, but it was also like Dude, What the heck?

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Yeah, Yeah, Well, And the funny thing was, the room that we moved you into your new bedroom was one that was always traditionally kept closed because it was Sam's room and there was a lot of, like, storage and stuff in there. We keep luggage and stuff in there. So it was an area that she was unfamiliar with, right? Like almost like she didn't even know that that room existed because there was a wall there all the time, right? Right. So when we moved you, we kept the studio closed, so she kept walking into the door off of the studio trying to get that was Maddie's room. Wait were used. I know there was something here because, like being blind, she memorized like where things were. So she knew where the litter box waas. And she knew where your room was in relation to the litter box. So she'd come around the bathroom either getting a drink of water, whatever, and she'd bump into the door, and then she'd have to center herself and move up and find the door to your room. So for the first couple of weeks, it was Yeah, it was comical, but said I tried to get around with the room change. But once she realized where Manny's room was and once we we had things situated. Now, when Maddie was in in this room, her her mattresses was a little high. When she moved into the her new bedroom, her mattress became even higher and

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Dorian realized how

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to get up there. We had a little stool, you know, by by the foot of her bed O r by the side of her bed. And

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Dorian realized Okay,

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this is where the bed

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is and managed to still get up on the bed.

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Like if I was, you know, a cat. I would not have been able to jump from the floor. You know, you're looking at that. You kind of have to do the math in your head of right. How you jump up there and she was doing she

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was doing it without now. There were a couple

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of times she needed help. Do you know, getting up there. But overall, she was, you know, very spry for, you know, older. You know, blind cat with you know, other other conditions. So yeah, she she said she survive surprisingly well. You know, you would see her come downstairs and she jumped up because as soon as she heard someone in the kitchen, she knew that there was food available somewhere, right? So she heard someone in the kitchen, she'd make her way down and she'd do her little bunny Hop down the stairs, Right, Right. If you bump into a few walls and she'd super user and it was funny because she'd go side to silently, you know? Ah, visually impaired person using a king to find her way. She would kind of, you know, do the back and forth on this way. And I think what was funny was for, I think, after we realized he was blind, I think we made sure after, obviously, the biggest thing was, you know, changing the bedrooms around. But after that, we tried not to move too much stuff because we didn't want to throw her off. So in the kitchen, you know where we would have liked the sodas on the floor. We always made sure they didn't go out too far. And, you know, she always knew where home baseball, right? She'd come over and she'd think the chair is here and she'd reach up. I remember a little further Reach up, right, That's not a little further. Gotta located. Jump. Right. So we always had the table in the same place or her chair in the same place. What

spk_1:   31:48
about the one time we actually, like, had to change up the kitchen when we change the self? And, like, um, we actually used to have, like, something behind, Like the chairs, right? One she, like, just traveled.

spk_0:   32:01
She went past. It was like, What? What? Wait s so overall wheat, we tried t keep things the same for her. And you and I have to say she was an incredibly persistent cat because, like on grocery days, when you go grocery shopping, every bags on the floor, there would be a path to get to the chair share. But it wasn't a direct hit, and she would sit there for 15 minutes, trying every possible way to get through there, and she would've actually would get there. Yeah, she was. She was very persistent. So let's take a quick break, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about some of the, uh less talked about stores. Oh, goodness gracious. So we've had some not so nice stories about stories, and the one that we bring up quite frequently, which Mommy is not particularly keen to talk about is the van incident? Uh, Mommy, did you want to tell us about this thinking? Like I have no problem telling the van story. Okay, you tell us about the van story. So back in the day when, um, my my mother had had a large conversion van that they had used for when my father was sick. Um, and after my mom, you know, kind of stopped driving. She gave us the van. And

spk_1:   33:37
you

spk_0:   33:38
actually, for many, you know, for a couple of years actually drove that as your everyday car. Um, well, when my mother had passed away, we kind of used it as a storage facility because we didn't really have much real basically a shed on wheels. So as I was bringing stuff home from my mother's house and, you know, stuff that I needed to go through, I would just kind of put it. We we used it, you know, in there because by that point you would stop driving it. And you were actually driving my mom's

spk_1:   34:11
other car? Um, so every, you know, couple of

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weekends. If it was nice out, I would go out, you know, to kind of All right, let me go through two boxes, you know, So I would sit in, you know, with the trash can and go through stuff, figure out. You know what I was saving in what? I wasn't, um, at this point, Dorian was not staying inside. She wasn't coming in. She was, you know, basically just coming around every couple of days, we'd feed her, she'd go, um, and if we were ever outside, she was always hanging around with us. So Ah, it was the summer and I was out working for, you know, a couple of hours in the van and what not? And I saw her, you know, go in the van. And I saw her leave the van, and when I was done, I closed

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up the van and went inside. Um, you know, and later that day, looking around for Dorian, and we didn't see her, and it was it was no big

spk_0:   35:08
deal that we, you know, didn't see her. Um you know, in the next day came still didn't see her. Um,

spk_1:   35:17
probably by like,

spk_0:   35:17
the third day I was getting, you know, a little concerned. I even said to you, you know, I don't know. You know where she is? It's, you know,

spk_1:   35:25
kind of unlike

spk_0:   35:25
her toe not come by at least once a day. Um, so little, you know, footnote to all of this. Our neighbor across the street from us had kind of threatened her room at one point because Dorian was hanging around a lot more.

spk_1:   35:45
And I guess Dorian was

spk_0:   35:46
using her flowerbed as a litter box. So she was just She

spk_1:   35:51
was just So the neighbor

spk_0:   35:53
had had come over the one day and banged on the door and was like, Is that your cat? And I was like, What are you talking about? You know, and and basically said she was gonna call the pound and have the cat picked up, you know? So I was really kind of worried, because right now I'm not seeing Dorian just, you know, a week or so ago. The neighbours neighbours threatening is threatening. Oh, my God. Something happened. Um, so it was, you know, getting close to almost being Ah week. Yes, sweetie.

spk_1:   36:27
Um, would it be okay if I tell the rest? Because I may. I can. I actually have an experience with the rest. Sure. Is it OK? OK, so sure you could tell. Come to stars and tendering on with You said it's been it was almost a week. Um and we haven't seen doi. And, um um I think at one point you mentioned it. I didn't have you. Did you ever mention it to me? Well, I I had mentioned that we hadn't

spk_0:   36:55
seen her. And what I had actually been doing was I A couple of times I went and walked around the house just to see because there were a couple of little hiding spots that she had just to see if she was there or she was hurt, because I was just afraid that if you had gone out to play and there was a dead cat in our backyard, you would have freaked out. So that was kind of I was kind of doing that to make sure you didn't find, you know, find her. So that's you know, so I would go out and I would look and I would see if, you know, I could find her. And obviously I didn't.

spk_1:   37:35
Yeah. So, um, back to the, um the it was a week. Um, So I remember I was hoping you throw out some trash bags, and at one point we heard a faint Miao. And

spk_0:   37:58
that's really what we heard.

spk_1:   37:59
Yeah. Um, you would ask me if I was saying and I said no when I asked you if you and like, then we and then we noticed it was coming from the van

spk_0:   38:09
because we did have the windows cracked in the van for Annalise. Right? Fortunately, we had done that.

spk_1:   38:14
So, um So mommy and I walked over to the van and you opened it, and we found doing inside, and she ran out and round, round, round, round, round, round for,

spk_0:   38:28
like, five minutes straight and well, and the moral of the story is you would inadvertently locked her in because she didn't announce her presence in their right. But ultimately, the anger of the woman saved her too. Absolutely. So that's what we're looking. She was she, You know she didn't run away after getting out of the van. She was obviously very hungry, Very thirsty. And I think because she had been on outside cat on ah, Hunter Cat, she

spk_1:   39:00
probably was used to

spk_0:   39:01
going days without food or water as opposed to, ah, house cat, who from where he was, she was a pretty beefy cat at the time to write. And at that point, she did end up losing. Yeah, losing some weight from being in the van for almost a week. But in the end, it was fine. She turned out okay, saved. And everyone lived happily ever after. Yep, Sure dead. So there's another I wouldn't say this is a specific incident or specific story that comes to mind, but she had a habit that was kind of a disgusting habit. I would I would come upstairs and we have a bathroom upstairs in the bathroom downstairs. Enduring probably being an outdoor cat was very fond of fresh water on the We happen to have a toilet of the time that had a slight leak in it. And it never stopped filling the bowl because it always leaks lately in the bow, and as a result, the water was always relatively fresh, so you would come up the stairs, you would make the right to go towards the bathroom and you would see during his butt, propped up on the edge of the tour with two falls in a bowl of toilet A CZ she drank out of the toilet bowl, which I thought was pretty disgusting. And you didn't see the problem with that mommy.

spk_1:   40:31
Just kind of like, all right. Yeah, Well, and the other thing, too, is

spk_0:   40:35
because when she would be outside, she would, you know, we would have different. You know, um, little tiny pothole would make tea. Yeah, she would drink from little puddles of like,

spk_1:   40:50
it's, you know, so yeah, toilet water versus that.

spk_0:   40:54
I think of the toilet was a

spk_1:   40:55
heck of a lot cleaner than some of the little puddles.

spk_0:   40:59
Well, drinking. And ultimately, when she wasn't able to get around anymore and couldn't jump up on balance on the toilet, you had resorted to leaving a fresh bowl of water upstairs in the bathroom for our every morning. And she was able to get her her fresh water that way,

spk_1:   41:16
right? And and then she got religion from that, and whatever the bullets and then she got on.

spk_0:   41:21
She'd not the boar

spk_1:   41:22
and she knocked the bullet. Well, I think that was also

spk_0:   41:24
Darcy, too, because Dorothy, because And then that was the other thing, too, that Liotta and Dorothy were like, Oh, there's water up here. Why

spk_1:   41:31
did we have to go down there? You

spk_0:   41:33
know, and then they started getting used to it. And now we still still have the water, you know, upstairs, You know, and you'll see Dorothy sitting there. Liotta, you know, first thing in the morning getting a drink of water because so, you know, I think the bottom line is I think she had a pretty good life with us. I think I think she contributed greatly to our lives. I think we contributed to her life. And I think, you know, if they were all better off having her in our lives. Yeah, absolutely.

spk_1:   42:06
Why am I thinking we should talk about the relationship she had with the other cats?

spk_0:   42:10
I think that's worthwhile. Go right ahead and talk about it

spk_1:   42:13
already. So first off, at the time that she was coming around, we did have our cat fluffer. Um And although those two didn't really talk too much. It was sort of like, Well, Fluffer was sort of the guardian of me. She would sleep with me, keep me company and

spk_0:   42:31
something like

spk_1:   42:31
that. And, um, at times you would see, like, um, it was actually kind of funny. We actually had a photo of it. So Darth on one side on the inside, you'd find Fluffer looking out all of our front door because we have a glass on barrier door thing. Whatever you want to call it,

spk_0:   42:56
don't throw stones. That

spk_1:   42:58
s o on the other side. On the outside, you just see doing. And they basically just been looking at each other. And we said they were having, like, a little talk of conference, and it was kind of funny. And by the time flow for had sadly passed away. Um, Dorian had sort of taken over that role like she had. No, she had basically known how Fluffer was getting older and how she knew that I would be devastated. So, um, she basically became. She basically took over fluff his role in taking care of me.

spk_0:   43:39
Yeah. It was kind of a passing of the torch moment between the two of them,

spk_1:   43:43
Sort of, um So the next relationship is going to be with Liotta. So there is a love hate relationship. Eso what do it started coming inside. I'd noticed that Liotta would always want to, like, bump into her and, like, sort of hunger. And that was not very appealing. The Dorian, um especially like I noticed it when she was blind. Leo would always, like, bump into her if she was about to go into a wall, lead her away. And she was honestly doing that because she loved her blood doin never really appreciated it and would whack her occasionally,

spk_0:   44:22
occasionally.

spk_1:   44:23
And I remember, like, one time I actually have a chair in my room where she would normally sit. And Liotta at some point I'd started going in there as well, actually, if you about two months ago, and at one point I just see like, um, Doi in just literally goes on like it was clearly Otis at their first. And then I just find that doi and basically climbed up there and laid on you. And that's not the first time

spk_0:   44:54
that Leo it was perfectly fine with Liotta. Liotta didn't mind at all. And obviously a lot of the pictures from from the movie, um, Leota is predominant, you know, in it. And I think, you know, towards the end, Liotta, Leo to definitely became her seeing eye cat. You know, we joke about it, but she really, you know, was there toe help her, And there would be times when Leo was already, you know, laying on the couch or laying on May, and Dorian would come up and Dori and just did not care to be like, did you? Did you? I'm gonna lay on top of you, and the order would just be like, and that's the thing. Like Leo is okay with any kind of attention that she got Dorian. Yeah. Yeah, which was, Which was cute. I mean, you could tell that, like Liotta and Dorothy were the closest in age and they were together, you know, since we got them right. But they were like squabbling sisters. You know, they never occasionally get seemed, get together and cuddle every night. But, you know, Dorothy's always the troublemaker, and and the odor of really took to Dorian is that that older cat that she looked up to, you know, like, try to do anything for you. Exactly. Tell us the relationship that Dorothy had.

spk_1:   46:18
Oh, it's gonna be great. So let's just say picture I cats as they think of them as a pack. At least Dorothy thinks and she basically wants to be the Alfa Cat. And with Dorian coming like, she totally knew she was the Alfa cat when it was just her fluffer and Liotta because Dorothy was dominant. Um, but when doing came around, she was older than Dorothy. And, um, she was clearly dominant. Um, as well. And Dorothy basically Sollers competition. So as you can imagine, the two of them never got along. Don't you Never tried to do anything that her, but it was clear that Dorothy did not like her. Um, like Dorothy would. Occasionally, when she was blind, Dorothy would like, occasionally just come upstairs to eat. And, like, she'd be leaving to go to my room or go upstairs, and, um, sometimes she would ignore her. Other times they get new if I and we have to lock her up because she was being a bad cat. Um, so, yeah, it was clear those two never really got along. I mean, I don't know Dorian's feelings to her. She ever really hit her back or anything?

spk_0:   47:42
Oh, she did. She did? Oh, yeah, Yeah, but she never started. That was that was the interesting dynamic. Was that? Like when? When we got the two kittens, we still had fluffer and fluffer was the elder cat at that point time. So Dorothy wanted to be the Alfa Cat. Uh, Liotta was okay with that, and Fluffer was just in different. She didn't care. And then when during and started coming around, she started coming in the house during was a big, powerful outdoor hunter cat. So Dorian was the Alfa, and Darcy didn't like that. So Dorothy would try to, like, intimidate her. And Dorian would have none of that. You know, Darth, you would get in a fight and she hit her and during would comfort and lack her And like, almost knock around with you, and Marty would immediately back from it. So she was a lot of bluster, like she she didn't really I couldn't stand out there because she didn't have the power. So later on, after the stroke, and when she was blind. Dorothy started to take advantage of that, right? Right. And what was funny was even blind being able to see anything she was still able to land blows on dark. Think that shocked because, you know, Dorothy was like I could get you back in. Yeah, she would just get stunts. So there they always kind of had a Yeah, they kind of had a competition, and they never you would never see them cuddling. No, no, it didn't happen. Like if they get past each other, the whole without hitting each other, that was about his city.

spk_1:   49:24
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, Darth Iwas Able thio. Well, I'm just going to say they were They weren't able to tolerate each other. Um, the only were able to tolerate each other because Dorothy knew that you would get in trouble if she had hit her. But sometimes the hatred build up in her and she couldn't stand it

spk_0:   49:46
right. So occasionally they would come to blows and let off a little steam. Yeah, but for the most part, they got along. They kept there, territories each, you know, the house was broken up in the territory though the house was so broken up into territory you had neutral zones. Were you transition? But you didn't stay in the kitchen, The neutral zone

spk_1:   50:08
and even in the

spk_0:   50:09
kitchen, everybody had other spot areas. You know, Dorian sat next to me and Liotta and Dorothy could kind of be, you know, elsewhere.

spk_1:   50:19
Stuff Dorothy normally like, was on your side. And Liotta would, like, sometimes be end of the little stool, should be by there, and she like Les. Oh, yeah. They also have a habit of laying in front of the fridge because

spk_0:   50:31
they always like the heat to come. Right, Well, and even for the longest time when we had to litter boxes, Dorothy, you know, that was Dorothy's little box. She only used the one downstairs, and Liotta and and during would use the upstairs one. Now, you know, it's just the one. So that was ah, big transition to because it was like, sorry. Um, because it was like, Wait a second. Who's in the litter box? And you know that my turn. Can I go? Yeah, you know, it was It's a small house, you know, kind of small for three cats, especially when two of Don't get along very well. Yeah, um, but, you know, they made d'oh. And I think, you know, even Darty kind of feels that that loss, you know, she knows she's not around. She knows something's up. Um, I think, uh, I think Liotta profoundly feels it. She seems very different now. She's much more cuddly with people where she really was very standoffish. Tow us. So I think, uh, I think she's still trying to cope with loss at this point. Uh, we're about 15 minutes here. I think we we addressed all the stuff that I wanted to talk about. Was there any other anecdotes or anything you guys want to mention? Did you want to show your artwork?

spk_1:   51:54
Oh, yes. So since story in had passed a few days ago, I decided to take some time. Thio

spk_0:   52:04
before you show that. Go ahead. We're going to say I want to preface it before you show it,

spk_1:   52:09
um, to make some to basically make a memorial for her.

spk_0:   52:14
So this podcast itself was supposed to be a, uh, creative. We're goingto talents, creative talents podcast. Where we want to showcase some of your artwork and your ratings and stuff like that. And given the loss of during, we decided to preempt that. But as kind of a preview of what that shows going to bay, you painted this portrait of her.

spk_1:   52:45
Yeah, it's not completely finished. Only I only put in two hours since, apparently I decided starting at 8:38 p.m. Was the best idea to pay, but you know.

spk_0:   52:58
All right, Picasso. Let's see already. Uh uh. That's behind the microphone. There you go. Look at that.

spk_1:   53:08
Um, I still have a few pieces that aren't fully code in, but I definitely think after two hours um, it's definitely good.

spk_0:   53:17
I think it looks It looks awesome. Yeah, probably. By next week, it will be complete. And I might

spk_1:   53:23
even have a few of

spk_0:   53:25
you technically have two weeks, because next week is our grandparent's one. So you have two weeks to finish your artwork way spoiler alert. So I think that that was probably all we wanted to cover today. We wanted to make sure that, you know, we spent some time celebrating the the special cat that she waas and the place that she she played in our lives. We did we buried her today. Um so when When we had to put down at the vet, the vet was kind enough to put her in a Ah, little, not a coffin, but

spk_1:   54:05
a little

spk_0:   54:06
cardboard cardboard casket that we could bury her energy. And we dug through three or four layers of roots this morning in the pouring rain.

spk_1:   54:17
Yeah, that was very

spk_0:   54:18
appropriate for way had to dio that was a commitment. So she has. She will remain with house. She has a little memorial outside with some cat statues, and she will be missed, but she will be remembered. Yep. That was all we had s o If we have a depressed you enough from watching any more of our episodes. I'm not gonna run down all the contact links. I will say that you can subscribe to both our audio and our video. Podcasts are audio. Podcast is insights into teens. It's available on iTunes Stitcher. Ah, hot being anywhere you could get a podcast. And our video version of the podcast is a generic video link for all of our podcast at insights into things also on all major podcast networks. And if we didn't have anything else. I think that was all we had, Right? So thank you, Dorian, for what you've given us. And we will miss you everyone. Bye

spk_1:   55:34
bye, But