Happy Birthday Ripley

16 years ago today a tiny white kitten was born that 8 weeks later would be brought home to be a part of our family.
We found out that someone had dumped off a litter of four kittens and they were taken in by a foster couple.

Ripley has a back story. We brought her home on a Sunday evening of Sept. 10, 2001.
Mrs ATB and I had both arranged to take the next day off to help socialize the kitten to her new home and the other two adult cats we already had.

Of course we had no way of knowing what the next morning of Sept. 11 2001 would bring.

At the time we lived in northeast New Jersey USA and you couldn't drive five mins. in any direction without catching a glimpse of the World Trade Center buildings.

We had already heard the news of the first tower coming down when we witnessed the second tower come down with our own eyes.

It was helpful we thought in the coming days that we had this tiny white fur ball of total innocence enter into our lives when faced with the actions of actual human monsters.

She helped us get through an extremely difficult time.

Now her life is winding down. She had a bad day today, with almost no eating and clearly an upset stomach.

But so it goes in nature and in life I suppose, it's the way of the world.
 We try to appreciate and make the most of the good moments.

Anyways... Happy BIrthday to a wonderful, gentle soul that will always remain an important part of our family.

She was the only cat we adopted as a kitten, all others have been adults, and therefore she will always be the baby of the family.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl.