Felines

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite animal?

My favorite animal is any kind of feline. The big cats, Lions, Tigers, Jaguars and Cheetahs amazing. My favorite big cat is the panther/puma. The black versions are magnificent animals.

I live in SW Florida on the Gulf Coast. We have the beautiful Florida Panther or Puma. One of the things on my bucket list is to get near one of these most amazing felines & be able to pet it.

All my life I’ve had and loved all kinds of domestic cats. The two I remember the most is Mittens and Puss Puss.

My Dad was a volunteer fireman. One day he was at the firehouse and heard like a baby crying from far away. With other firemen helping they started to search. Finally in the middle of the parking lot was a big drain. Sure enough this little cat was hanging by its claws in deep to the side of the drain. Long story short, with the help of the other firemen, Dad saved the little cat and brought it home. We named her mittens.

Puss Puss was a beautiful white long hair domestic. She just showed up one day to our home on Long Island. I loved that cat. I would dress her up in baby cloths & walk her around in my baby carriage. She would wander off for a few hours and when she returned she would be grey and dirty. She would spend another few hours cleaning herself and when she was done she would be white as snow.

When we moved to Florida we drove down with a dalmatian and 5 kittens.

My husband is a cat person also. All the cats we’ve had were our babies. Our first cats were a pair of Russian Blues we adopted from the Humane Society. For a long while we had Manx kitties. They were loving, jumpers and so much fun. Currently we have four cats. One was a present. He is a big gray and white Tom named Foxy. Very vocal and knows how to say “hello”. The other three are rescues. Micky is a thin short haired domestic. He is a lover. Next is Micky’s brother Snickers. He is a beautiful long hair with fur like a rabbit. He is my baby. Lastly, there is Cynder. She is a beautiful all black long hair with green eyes. She is our shy sciddish kitty.

My Birthday 03/03/1960

Great date & numbers to be born to March 3rd, 1960, 03/03/1960 or 3/3/60. A few days before I was born my Mommy was sitting at her vanity doing her morning beauty routine. The phone rang, Mommy answered and It was her Mommy, my Grandma Chiaiese. She was calling to ask how Mommy was feeling“? Mom mentioned she was extra tired but other wise okay. Grandma said she was coming over because she knows Mommy was in labor. Grandma always knew crazy thing like that.

Since the hospital was far out east on Long Island, NY in Mastic Beach (side note the hospital is not there any longer), the doctor decided it was probably a good idea that they make the drive sooner then later. So off they go with a very pregnant Mommy. Her doctor would meet them there.

Once they got there and met up with Mommy’s doctor it was determined she was indeed in labor. When Daddy got there the doctor was running around the lobby with an X-ray of me in Mommy’s belly shouting, “look at my baby, look at my baby”! My Daddy was there and he said, “sorry doc that is my baby”!

Everything was going fine until the doctor noticed Mommy’s labor was not progressing for delivery. It got to be five days, multiple shots to induce hard labor but Mommy’s labor didn’t progress so she couldn’t deliver. I was way down in the birth canal and was stuck. They have been monitoring my vitals and then they noticed there were no vitals for me so Mommy was rushed to the operating room for a emergency C-section. They told Mommy there were no vitals so then need to take the baby making her think her baby was dead. Poor Daddy once again had to sign papers when it came down to it to save Mommy very me. I want to make my thoughts on this very clear, I do not blame Daddy for his decisions in these cases.

I was born “Still Born” basically meaning I as born dead. The doctors were not going to give up so they performed shock treatment by emerging me in warm water to ice cold water. It took several minutes but it worked and brought me bake to life.

Mommy awoke from surgery and when Daddy came to see her she was very upset still thinking her baby died. My Daddy told her no that was not true that they have a beautiful baby girl & they named me Rose Marie.

One last side note, Mommy went into the hospital on a beautiful sunny Spring day and the day I was born there was a blizzard. The worsted in over 50 years and made headlines in all the papers.

The Second Trimester Fall of 1959

After the scare in the first trimester my Mommy was feeling good and was enjoying her pregnancy. But that didn’t last for very long, another scare was in the near future.

In her fifth month of her pregnancy my Mommy experienced severe pelvic pain. I can’t imagine what was going through her mind. Her doctor was called and he instructed Mom and Dad to meet him at the hospital. At the hospital after doing some medical testing it was determined that my Mommy had a bad case of appendicitis.

Well you can imagine back then in the 1950’s early 1960’s this is a bad situation. I can’t fathom what my father & mother felt at this time. It was time once again to sign my life away. Once again my Mommy’s doctor came to my rescue. He remembered in a medical journal that there was a new surgical procedure where they only make a small incision in the abdomen and use new small surgical instruments to remove the infected appendix.

Every one agreed to try this new experimental surgical procedure on my Mommy. But it was known to all, that my father’s explicit instructions was if anything went wrong during the surgery that they had to do everything to save my mother & end the pregnancy along with me. I know my father was tormented that he had to once again sign my life away after all the heartache they been through just to have a baby. I can also imagine how scared my mommy was.

The surgery went well and they were able to successfully remove the infected appendix saving us both. I was spared once again. I met death face to face for the second time and won. All this & I was still in my Mommy’s womb, hopefully to see the light of day some time in the near future. Mommy and Daddy went home bewildered and happy that their baby was coming home with them once again.

The First Trimester Summer 1959


My Mother lost two pregnancies in the first two years of her marriage. One was a set of twins. So when I was conceived in the summer of 1959 her and Dad were very happy and excited.

When Mom was in her first trimester of her pregnancy with me, she became serious ill with morning sickness. Nothing helped so she stopped eating. Because of this she became very dehydrated and malnourished. One day my Grandfather Chiaiese came over to our house for a visit & found my Mom unconscious on the floor.

Mom was transported to the hospital. Her doctor was to meet her there. After examining Mom the hospital doctor went to talk to my Dad and Mom’s personal doctor. The hospital doctor told them that I was poisoning my Mother and to save my her life they wanted to abort the pregnancy. That would not be great for me. Thank goodness my Mother’s personal doctor remembered reading in a medical journal about a new experimental drug to help with severe morning sickness and nausea. The new drug worked. Mom got back on her feet, enjoying her pregnancy. For awhile anyway.