Memories of Chi the Adventure Cat and New Rescue Cats

The Story of My Pet Podcast

Episode 14: Memories of Chi the Adventure Cat and the New Life of Bonded Pair Jack and Sparrow

Host: Julie Marty-Pearson

Guest: Michelle Steiner

Transcript

[00:00:00]
 Hello. Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers. Welcome to another episode of the Story of My Pet podcast. I'm super excited to get into the conversation today. We're going to welcome my guest, Michelle Steiner.
 
 [00:00:14]
 Hi, Michelle, thank you so much for joining me. Hi, Julie, thank you for having me today. Okay, so I'm going to tell you a little bit more about Michelle and then we'll get started talking about her pets from yesterday and today. So Michelle Steiner lives in Pennsylvania with her two cats, Jack and Sparrow.
 
 [00:00:34]
 She works as a teacher's aide in public school. She's also a disability writer and advocate. She loves animals, especially cats. A woman after my own heart. Thank you again for being here, Michelle.
 
 [00:00:49]
 Oh, thank you so much. Yes. As Jolie said, I definitely love animals, especially cats. Ever since I was little, I've always loved cats. I didn't have my own cat until my husband moved in and that he brought his cat.
 
 [00:01:15]
 She is actually a really important part of our relationship right when we started dating is when my husband rescued the little cat Chi, and I thought, oh, that's so sweet. And as soon as I met him, the cat just fell in love with me and we really hit it off. And when my husband we moved in, we had our cat there and he provided so much comfort and so much joy for us for so many years.
 
 [00:01:50]
 Yeah, definitely. So how did your husband rescue chi? There was a family member that was taking care of him and wasn't able to do that anymore. So he took the cat in and his mum gave him the advice, my mother in law gave him the advice you should really take in a cat. So he decided, okay, I want to have this cat.
 
 [00:02:15]
 And it was really good company for him because he lived outside in Philadelphia for the first part in our relationship. So that was really nice having that company for him. Yes, cats make great companies for people who live alone. Definitely. I know I didn't grow up with cats, I grew up with dogs.
 
 [00:02:38]
 So I got my first cat as an adult as well. And it's funny because his name was Jack. Like one of your current cats, right? Sweet. And yes, he was definitely that companion.
 
 [00:02:56]
 Cats, dogs, whatever it may be. When you live alone, having an animal there, then you're not talking to yourself. At least you're talking to the animal. Right, exactly. How long did you guys have Chief for?
 
 [00:03:11]
 We had chief for about 13 years. Wow. And he was a relatively healthy cat. I mean, he definitely used a lot of his nine lives. He got at a place where renting from he went through a box fan in the attic and knocked the tooth out, thankfully.
 
 [00:03:32]
 Oh my goodness. Going. But we had to get his tooth taken care of and he did that and he was very adventurous, was always getting into something and climbing and getting into some kind of trouble. But we had him for 13 years and when we moved into our new home, he was here for a while and he was doing great. And then all of a sudden he wasn't eating and he just didn't seem like his normal, energetic self.
 
 [00:04:04]
 So we took him to the vet and we found out he had congestive heart failure. That's sad. And it was very sad. He didn't suffer too long. The day afterwards, he actually passed while both of us were at home with him.
 
 [00:04:24]
 And he just wanted to be with us even up until the very end. He was just very attached to my husband and I.
 
 [00:04:32]
 We decided after a couple of months, we gave herself some time to be without a cat. And we really missed him. And we also just missed having a companion with us. And there was on Neighborhood Digest, there was a family nearby that they were moving to Florida and they couldn't take their cats with them. They could take the dog, but they couldn't take the cats to where they were living at.
 
 [00:05:01]
 So we contacted them and we went out to the house and we met Jack and Sparrow and just fell in love with them instantly. They were really just very nice cats and we took them home and we've had them for a year now. Oh, that's great. So are they super bonded, Jackensboro? Oh, they are, definitely.
 
 [00:05:26]
 We didn't want to separate them. The owners didn't. They are very bonded. They just love each other. You'll see them sometimes, Sparrow especially.
 
 [00:05:37]
 She'll be licking his head and will be hanging out together. And Jack is more of the cat that he wants to go outside. He wants to go out there and explore. We try to keep him in, but he finds his way out. And Sparrow wants nothing to do with going outside.
 
 [00:05:55]
 She just wants to be indoors and back. When he's out there, she just goes to the door and she just looks around like, well, where are you at? Come back in. Why are you going out there? Right, exactly.
 
 [00:06:08]
 And for anyone wondering, I already asked. The family that you got Jack and Sparrow from were Disney fans. So the cats are named for Jack Sparrow from the pirate movies? Exactly. They were.
 
 [00:06:20]
 They were huge fans. Yes. So that's what the cats were named after. And we just thought the names were so cute that we just didn't want to rename them and have to try to get used to something else anyways. No, I love those names.
 
 [00:06:37]
 I've never thought about taking a character and using both names with more than one cat. So I like that idea. So you said that Jack goes outside. Do you guys go out with them or does he just sneak out and try and roam the neighborhood? Well, usually we are out with him but sometimes he does sneak out from his the neighborhood.
 
 [00:06:59]
 So we do try to keep him in as much as we possibly can to keep them safe. But every once in a while, he just likes to go out there and explore. His new thing is chasing squirrels across the yard. So we're like, okay. And he likes us to chase them.
 
 [00:07:19]
 He likes us to go out there and try to bring him back in. And he comes back in on his own, usually, so good thing. That's funny. Yeah. I have two cats currently, and they've always been indoor cats, but my husband has a garden on the side of our house, and a few years ago, they started like, oh, well, I could go out there with you.
 
 [00:07:41]
 So we only let them out there if he's there. And it's the same thing. They go out, they hang out, and they know like, okay, I've had enough. And they'll come in on their own. Exactly.
 
 [00:07:51]
 Yeah. They just want to sniff around and see what's going on. So it's always nice to let our cats do that. One of our cats, Frenchy, actually, when she was young, I put her on a harness and would take her outside. But as she got older, she wasn't into that.
 
 [00:08:07]
 She didn't like being put in a harness? Yeah, they don't like harnesses, and they're not big on coffee, and they're like, Come on. Our neighbors have a cat that lives across the street, looks just like Jack. So that's caused a little, sometimes confusion, and the neighbor came over and yeah, I'm like, oh, no, this is ours.
 
 [00:08:31]
 That's so funny, because one of mine Frenchie, she was actually born in our backyard or nearby. Her mom was Darrell, and when her mom moved the litter, she got left behind. She got stuck in the fence. So that's how I came to find her in a doctor. And we hadn't seen her mom in the litter for a long time.
 
 [00:08:50]
 And all of a sudden, one day, I looked out the back door and I'm like, frenchie, how did you get outside? And then I turned, and she's looking at me like, what do you mean? I'm right here. What's happening? Well, there were three other cats in the litter that looked exactly like Fred.
 
 [00:09:08]
 They all looked alike. They were all tabby's. And then at one point, they started hanging out in the front yard. She would just sit there and watch them. And it's one of those things where you're like, wait a minute, how did you do that?
 
 [00:09:19]
 I understand being sacred. I know, because they look alike. Yeah, even they're all black, except for they have a little bit of white underneath their chin.
 
 [00:09:35]
 The cat was there whenever we moved in. But that's funny. They both came from the same litter, though, with yours. Yeah. I didn't realize that until later, but yeah, that's always the thing, especially when we have our cats that stay inside.
 
 [00:09:49]
 It's definitely a fear they get out there and they don't know how to handle themselves. I always say that, like they can hear me. You don't know how good your life is exactly until you hear you got in the world. Very true. You mentioned that you're a disability writer and advocate.
 
 [00:10:12]
 What is it that you do in that area? Okay, I have a learning disability with math and visual perception. I'm not able to drive. So what I do is I write a lot of articles on having a learning disability and just other aspects of having a disability that comes up. And I've had them published, a lot of them, on The Mighty.
 
 [00:10:37]
 I've had a couple of other ones published in other places as well. And I've recently started my own blog called Michelle's Mission. And that's to help people to be educated on learning disabilities and just with a disability. And I get to also help out as a teacher's aide in the school. I help out.
 
 [00:10:59]
 A lot of students have disabilities as well. That's amazing. That's such an amazing thing that you've been able to take your experience in what you do and share it with others and then also be able to go into the classroom and help students too. That must be very rewarding for you. It is very rewarding to do that.
 
 [00:11:20]
 What age group do you work with? Right now I work with 7th, 8th and 9th grader. Okay. Teenagers. Oh, yes.
 
 [00:11:30]
 And you mentioned you had some of your articles published on The Mighty. Is that an online yes, it's an. Online community for people that have disabilities. The stories other people will there's also virtual groups that meet. And it's wonderful that it's definitely like you're able to connect with other people that have disabilities and also be able to just be able to show other educate other people as well.
 
 [00:12:02]
 I've also had things published on Imagine the World is one magazine that's another disability one. And I also do photography as well, so I've gotten some pictures in Word Gathering, which is a literary magazine, and I'd like to take pictures. That's great. I will definitely look at those and learn more about them and then I'll tag them in the description of this episode. That way if anybody out there would like to learn more about them.
 
 [00:12:30]
 That's amazing. I think advocating and making people aware of different disabilities is so important because if you don't have direct experience with it, you have no idea what other people are dealing with day to day things like that. Exactly. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, it's interesting because I found that a lot in speaking to people on this podcast that have the connection to animals often is so strong for us when we have different issues that we're facing, whether it's mental health issues.
 
 [00:13:03]
 Myself, I battle autoimmune, chronic illness, and my cats always, and my dogs when I was younger, too, have always been very responsive to me when I'm not feeling well and things like that. So I'm sure your cats are a support for you, whatever you're going through as well. Definitely. Sometimes there's just that connection with them. If I'm sad or something's not going right, they're the ones that will just jump up on my lap and they're like, hey, what's going on?
 
 [00:13:32]
 And they're just there and really supportive and understanding emotions. And I grew up with dogs, and my dog was wonderful. We had a great we had a lab at one point that was really sweet, but if you were upset, it was too much for her. But my cat, they just jump up and they're just like, what's the matter? You can't be mad at me.
 
 [00:13:59]
 Pay attention to me and you'll feel better. But your dog was like, wait, no, this is too much. I got to check. Oh, yeah. Like, whoa, wait.
 
 [00:14:10]
 I can't do this. This is the sweetest dog ever, though. We've got some nice ones too. But I think that is so true about cats. A lot of people that have never had a cat think that they're disconnected.
 
 [00:14:25]
 They're not very integrated in what you're doing, but like you said, it's the total opposite of that. They're very much in tune with us and our emotion, and they just let us know that they're there for us. Very true. Yeah. So are Jack and Sparrow like that with you as well?
 
 [00:14:44]
 I know you said, gee, you guys were very much attached. Oh, yeah. Jack and Sparrow are the same way. They just come up to me if you're having a rough day or something's going on, and they'll be either recalling on my lap or if I'm sitting at the computer, they'll come up to me and they'll just give you little head knobs. They also like to sleep with us, and they wake us up in the morning sometimes.
 
 [00:15:10]
 That's our alarm clock. That was one of the things the previous owner said. They're going to wake you up in the morning. I'm like, that's all right, we get that. And just some warnings.
 
 [00:15:19]
 They'll wake us up, and other mornings, one of them will be laying at our feet or by our side. And they like being with us as well. And we like being with them too. Yes, I agree with that. Whenever I'm away from my cats, I miss them, and they always let me know when I come home that they aren't very happy that I was gone.
 
 [00:15:43]
 Right. We just recently went to Chicago to celebrate my birthday, and as soon as we were in, it was like 02:00 in the morning when we got in and we could hear the cat at the door like, hey, human, where were you? Thankfully, my parents are wonderful. They come in and they'll take care of them whenever we're away, so that's great. But it's not the same as you exactly.
 
 [00:16:11]
 Yeah. That's amazing. So do you have any funny stories about Jack and Spare, about anything that they do or have done that surprise you that maybe were very different than your experience with chi? Well, for having the two cats that have had the previous owners, they are a little more calm than our other. And then she was she was a very spoiled, only cat, didn't have to have his undivided attention.
 
 [00:16:39]
 So it was a little bit different that when we got them, that they're just very sweet. They're very relaxed and mellow, but they don't really want to have their own way as much as the other one did, which was fine. You could tell that they grew up together. These ones, they love to climb as well.
 
 [00:17:05]
 In our bathroom, we have cupboards where we put our towels at. And one morning I was in there and there's Jack and Sparrow climbing in the cupboards. Oh, my goodness. They're just there because we don't have doors on them. They're just like these little shelves and they like to climb up there with the towels and hang out.
 
 [00:17:25]
 Jack, I mean, he is laying down right now. But last week I had a virtual meeting from one of my mighty events, and the cat, he ended up he wanted attention. He wanted to come and say hi, and he was rolling all around on the computer and disconnected. And luckily I already had a share that I gave, and I just said, everyone, hey. I think he pulled the plug on the show.
 
 [00:17:53]
 That's too funny. Yeah. Had to have a way of doing that, especially once better. Like, I only want your attention when I want your attention, but if you're giving something else attention, I will let you know that it's time for you to refocus on me. Right.
 
 [00:18:11]
 Don't read that book.
 
 [00:18:16]
 Yeah. I had a cat cosmo that if I was sitting anywhere, he was on my lap or on my book or my magazine or my laptop. Yeah. They were like, okay, you're stopping. Your attention is now focused on me.
 
 [00:18:31]
 Exactly. Yeah. I love that, though, that our animals, so many of us, are doing virtual things like we are right now. It's great that they get to be able to be right there with us. I've done a lot of recordings where they'll have their dog at their feet or their dog is sitting behind them or whatever it may be.
 
 [00:18:51]
 And I think that's a great thing that we're able to spend more time with them in that way. And they're like, hey, we want to be a part of whatever it is you're doing. Right. I tried to get them, but they were not having it today. But I'm like, okay, that's fine.
 
 [00:19:06]
 Yeah, that's the other thing. You can't expect them to do it when you actually want them to. Oh, yeah. It's always when you don't.
 
 [00:19:16]
 Yeah, I was on a zoom the other day with, I don't know, less than around 20 people, and all of a sudden the speaker, you saw this cat head pop up in front of her. I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that feeling. Right. She played it off really well, but it happens to all of us. Exactly.
 
 [00:19:36]
 So when I spoke with you virtually via email before we recorded this podcast, you had mentioned an organization, the Butler County Humane Society. Yes. They are a Nokia animal shelter in Butler County, and they help out with sheltering animals and placing them for adoptions in the homes. And we didn't get our tests through them, but they do a wonderful job in the community for animals that need housing. That's great.
 
 [00:20:13]
 And I will link their web page as well where you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook in the description of this episode. Great. Thank you so much. I think it's great. I love hearing no kill shelters.
 
 [00:20:27]
 We don't all have that option, unfortunately, but it's great to hear shelters that are able to be no killing are really making a difference in their communities. Definitely. Yeah. So are there any stories about your experience with Chai that you want to share? I know he was such a big part of your life, kind of like talking about him and the impact he had.
 
 [00:20:53]
 He was just this cat. He was interesting. My husband would call him a jazz cat because he kind of liked to do what he wanted to do, which all was similar. We were living the first place that when my husband lived in, we were living in an apartment that was in this old Victorian mansion, and our apartment was up near the roof, and we had this window that was right by our kitchen table. And we opened the window up and the cat went out on the roof.
 
 [00:21:27]
 Oh, really? We're like, oh, my gosh, what are you doing out there? So we had to get him out of there, off of there. He did stuff like that. He just was curious the same way with going in the attic.
 
 [00:21:46]
 He just wanted to explore. Oh, wow. Right. And I think he really liked it, though, when we finally were able to get our own house and he was able to just explore where he wanted to and just have that opportunity. He was also pretty good in the car, as I said.
 
 [00:22:05]
 My husband worked in Philadelphia for a number for a few years, so the cat was on a five hour journey a lot of times in the car. The first time my husband took him home, right after we met, the cat got himself out of the carrier. We don't know how he did that. I mean, he must have unzipped himself, and the next thing you know, he's on my husband's shoulder is my husband's driving down the pizza. So he had to pull off to the side of the road and get him.
 
 [00:22:35]
 In he goes. That's when I knew that this cat was going to have personality. And what he had for all those 13 years was just a lot of personality and we miss them a lot. That's amazing. That's so funny because one of my cats traveled with me as well.
 
 [00:22:56]
 I commuted to La. Which is about an hour and a half, 2 hours from where I live. And our first cat, Jack, our cat named Jack, he got diagnosed with kidney disease so he had to be on a special diet. And at the time we had three other cats. So managing something that only he was to eat and the others weren't was pretty difficult.
 
 [00:23:19]
 So I started taking him with me during the week to my job and he was the same. He did not like beating the carrier. He wanted to be out. I have a handful of pictures of him crawling around in the back or unfortunately, when he would get upset or scared, he would crawl under my feet. Oh, no.
 
 [00:23:40]
 Not a good place to be when I'm driving. Actually, one experience that was really a little scary, I was coming home from work for Thanksgiving and I know everywhere has bad traffic over the Thanksgiving week, but in California it is really bad, especially between La. And other areas. So it was pitch dark. So much traffic.
 
 [00:24:05]
 He got under my feet and I was like, jack, you're going to kill us in this traffic. But yes, that always looks jack had a personality too. It sounds like him. And she would have gone along really well. They probably would have.
 
 [00:24:21]
 It's so funny because a couple of times when I was driving, I'd stopped to get something to eat and he would just come sit in my lap and the drive through kesher would be like, what's? Something I've never seen before. It's a cat in the lap sitting on your lap. They don't like the carrier. Jack and Sparrow aren't big on survivor.
 
 [00:24:40]
 No, they like to be free and. Run around like that be a part of the action. Exactly. So did she get used to it and he continued to travel with your husband back and forth? He did.
 
 [00:24:55]
 He got used to traveling and he did okay. I mean, he would still cry but he got used to being in the carrier. But it was nicer when he did come back closer. He came back here so they weren't having to do so many long car rides, ticket places. But every once in a while if he would pick me up from work or if he dropped something off, he'd have the cat in the car and sometimes that was nice if it was a long day and I got the just to see the cat for chief for a few minutes and be like, oh, okay.
 
 [00:25:29]
 So bad. It is nice sometimes to have them with us. Even though cats are a little different for traveling than dogs. Some of them still like to do it and go on adventures and go on vacation, even. Exactly.
 
 [00:25:43]
 He was able to do that and kind of be a companion for your husband when he was commuting. Yes, exactly. That was Michelle. I really appreciate you being on the episode, and I loved learning about your beloved chi as well as your current cast, Jack and Sparrow, and everyone will get to see some pictures of them when this episode comes out. And I will also link and highlight the Butler County Humane Society as well as the mighty the disability community that you mentioned.
 
 [00:26:18]
 I think that's amazing. As well as I will link Michelle so you can learn more about her and the work that she does in this episode. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michelle. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and share your love for animals, especially cats, and the experiences you have.
 
 [00:26:37]
 I think it's a really important conversation to have. I also want to thank you for taking in Jack and Sparrow. So many cats get left behind, unfortunately, or put on the street or taken to shelters when families move and think that they can't take them with. So I'm so glad that Jack and Sparrow were able to find you and your husband. Well, they give us far more joy, too.
 
 [00:27:00]
 They give us joy as well, definitely. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for being here and to my listeners, I will see you next time. Bye.