Anita Clemetson and Sweet Georgia Brown

We knew, years ago, that when we adopted several cats, of the same age, that we would have to face the time when they would age, become ill, and leave us.

Our dear Sweet Georgia Brown, pictured here in her red cube bed, has been ill with kidney failure, and thyroid disease. I give her the fortified water she needs, under her skin every evening to supplement her water intake to prevent dehydration, and my husband gives her a pink thyroid pill every morning after breakfast. According to our records we have been doing these tasks since January 10, 2011 so it is close to a year that we have been carrying out this routine to keep our dear Sweet Georgia alive.

Have you ever tried to 'pill' a cat? I leave that task to Dick while I am the administrator of the Lactated Ringer's water every evening. I don't like doing this job but I do it because this mineral enriched water has kept Georgia alive for the past year, and that makes it worth doing.

Georgia is under the care of Dr. Moran, at Family Pet Care on East Street here in Hollister. It is because of Dr. Moran's instructions to us that Georgia has been able to survive with her two diseases as long as she has survived. But right now Georgie is living her last days. I expect that she will 'pass' sometime between today, December 17th and Christmas.

Georgia is 17 going on 18 years old. At first we thought that she was going on 17 but then we found an old dated photograph that told us that Georgia was a year older than we previously thought she was. In people years this makes her going on 72. Actually, that is not very old, at least for a human but for a cat it is getting up in years.

Georgie is a tri-colored orange, black and white Calico. We also adopted her sister, Daisy Mae Brown, pictured in this blog entry on her leopard blanket. Daisy Mae is also a Calico. Daisy Mae had the same Siamese mother and Ginger Tom father, yet the two 'blood' sisters were from two different litters, three months apart in age. While they do resemble each other there are enough differences in their appearance, that it is easy to tell them apart.



We adopted Daisy Mae first, from a friend who worked in the H. R. Department in a company that we both worked for back in 1994. The lady's name is Anita Clemetson, and she was one of the nicest persons we have ever met.

After we adopted Daisy Mae I told Anita that I wanted to adopt another Calico, and I put in my order. I told Anita that the 'new' little one would be named 'Sweet Georgia Brown'.

About three months after I place my order for Sweet Georgia I got a phone call from Anita,

"Carol, Sweet Georgia Brown is in my office, come on over..."

I traveled to Anita's office, which was in building one, and in the middle of her office's floor, I found a very large, brown, cardboard box that contained six very lively, healthy kittens complete with a generous supply of fleas distributed on each of them.

I reached into the box to take Sweet Georgia out, and a tiny, pale orange kitten blocked my access to Georgia. This tiny bit of orange fluff actually hissed at me, and scratched my hand with its' tiny, thin baby claws. With my hands 'itching' from the baby claw scratches on them, I had to walk all the way back to my office in another building to get a pair of yellow, rubber gloves that I kept in my desk, and normally put on when I found myself changing a cartridge on a xerox machine.

With the yellow, rubber gloves on my hands, with the long extention of yellow, rubber glove on both of my arms, I was able to once again reach into that cardboard box, and with the pale orange youngster ripping at both of my hands and my arms, hitting only yellow, rubber glove, I was able to reach Sweet Georgia and grab her by the scruff of her neck, pulling her out of the box.

Anita watched the whole episode from the safety of her chair, and when she saw the 'spunk' that the little orange kitten showed, she made her mind up that she would keep that one for herself. Anita had an older cat at home that needed a companion, and because the little orange kitten was capable of defending herself, Anita figured that she would be able to stand her ground with an older, controlling cat. Yes, I said 'she' in reference to the orange kitten!

Most, over 95% of all orange colored cats are male but every once in a while one comes along that is female, and this was one of the rare females. Anita didn't breed her orange female, instead she had her 'fixed' as she did for all of the cats she rescued over the years. Anita named her new kitten, 'Cat With No Name'. The last time I got a letter from Anita I learned that Cat With No Name grew up, and was a good companion for Anita's older cat.

Over the years, I have lost contact with Anita Clemetson, and I tried to find her. A couple of years after I left the company, Anita also left the company. I am sure that she continued on rescuing feral cats, getting the adults 'fixed', and returning them to where she originally found them, and I am sure that she continued finding good homes for the kittens. I remember that Anita earned her college degree in Art, and she especialy loved making pottery. Online I have seen her name associated with art shows in the Bay Area.

While kittens are dear to look at it is not always easy to find good homes for them, and Anita was very knowledgeable about this fact. She 'placed' many kittens in good homes over the years, and it was not an easy task to find those good homes.

I will always remember Anita for her great kindness towards those tiny, balls of fur, with teeth, and claws that she managed to find homes for. Some day I will see her again and tell her about Daisy Mae and Sweet Georgia. Perhaps with this blog entry I have already reached Anita, and she knows that both Daisy Mae and Sweet Georgia have had good lives. Daisy Mae is the older of the two sisters by three months, and she is still in good health, and may live to 20 as many cats do live to 20, and some live beyond.

As her tribute, following, is Georgie's theme song, which I have sung to her many times over the years...

"Two left feet, but o' so neat, is Sweet Georgia Brown...
Fellas she can't get are fellas she ain't met...
Sweet Georgia Brown
La da la da Sweet Georgia Brown..."

The original song about Sweet Georgia Brown orginated back in the 1920's, in the United States.

UPDATE
Georgie loved her song and I sang it to her today, which is December 20, 2011...she is hanging on, and I think she will be here with us up to Christmas Day...
For the word 'fellas' in her theme song, I often substitute the two words, 'tom cats'

UPDATE
Today is December 28, 2011 and today at 11:55 a.m. Sweet Georgia Brown peacefully, passed away. She lived a very good life with her humans whom all loved her very much. Georgia earned the respect of the other felines in her home both while she was healthy, and after, when she became ill.

Back in late 1994 when I put in my request to Anita Clemetson for another Calico Kitten I told her that the new kitten would be named Sweet Georgia Brown. I chose the name Georgia for someone I admired, and that person is Dr. Georgia Abrams, who is a well known dermatologist, who practices here in California. Dr. Abrams is also my dermatologist, and it turns out that she is also fond of Calico Cats, and was pleased that Sweet Georgia was named in her honor.

This is another true life story from Carol Garnier Dutra

Copyright © 2011/2012 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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