BIGGIE-

I get home from work and Speckles lets me know BIGGIE has a new habit of jumping on the counter.  Let me explain my side for a moment before you judge....

BIGGIE and I have been through a lot together. She has seen and heard much in her travels from Boston to Seattle to Philadelphia to Maine. She is 16 years old.  She has driven cross country with me 2 out of the 6 times. She has flown cross country a few times too.  She has been to the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, The International Peace Park, The Petrified Forest, Oklahoma City and Yellowstone. She has been to Texas and Missouri. She also camped (in a tent in Idaho), and had to listen to K and I do to karoke!  Yes, if you are wondering, the campground did have karoke! Oh yeah, she also got pulled over in Winslow, Arizona and watched from her kitty carrier as my bis sis D. talked her way out of getting a speeding ticket.  
In her younger and wilder days, she was stuffed in a backpack and got stuck in high places like roofs and trees, all her choice. If  I could have bought a kitty bjorn, I would have (that would have been my choice).  After  "Boy-Who-Got-Pulled-Over-for-Driving-too-Slowly" and I broke up, and my sister, K. left Seattle to get a job on a cruise ship, she left BIGGIE with me. Alone in a big city.  No friends and no family. Just BIGGIE and me. BIGGIE and me became roomies. I told her my secrets.  She responded by staring. She kept me warm at night. I bought her free range, hormone free sliced turkey from the supermarket  She was my catalyst for sleeping with girls....just kidding.
 I don't want to say BIGGIE was replaced by first another cat (little), then a girl that decided to stick around (Speckles) and finally a slobbery dog (Rio).  But you see, I used to bring sliced turkey home from the supermarket for BIGGIE and sometimes, like this past Saturday for example, when I passed the deli counter at the supermarket, I did think about BIGGIE the cat. She has a special place in my heart.
So when I get home from work and ask Speckles about her day and she tells me in an annoyed tone how she was making a turkey sandwich, and "the cat jumped up on the counter and would not get down", it all makes sense. 
Funny how you can be with someone for almost 7 years and they never knew you used to buy your cat sliced turkey from the supermarket.

Dream #2 BIGGIE
Speckles and I are swimming in a clear and sparkly blue pool.  The sun is out and it's warm, no hot.  I go under water and I come up and BIGGIE and little are swimming in the pool too. At first they are hesitant but after a little bit, we all begin to swim around the pool. BIGGIE goes under and she sinks to the bottom.  It is a graceful sink, purposeful.  Everything feels calm but she is staying on the bottom.  Speckles dives under, scoops up BIGGIE and brings her to the surface.  Speckles drops BIGGIE off at the edge of the pool.  BIGGIE shakes off and scampers away leaving a wet print on the cement.