Did you hear the one about the cat?

My Grandma Zollinger suffered from Alzheimer's. It was hard to watch her fade, but we were fortunate in that she was able to continue living next door with Grandpa for a long time before she needed 24 hour supervision. That doesn't mean we didn't notice signs of her slipping sanity. She would forget conversations or events soon after they occurred and that would sometimes lead to humorous situations....sometimes it's better to laugh to keep from crying.


Anyway, my favorite Grandma story from this time period is the one about her cat.


I don't believe she met the cat alive. Grandma encountered the cat only after its death, but she really did love that thing. She found it some place out on the farm and immediately decided it should spend its afterlife walking along the gate behind her house. I hadn't realized we took a picture until recently. And here it is.


















This is Melanie and Stephanie posing with Grandma's cat. If you can't tell, that is a rib bone from a cow that Grandma used to prop the cat up...Grandma was always resourceful.


She was seriously so fond of this cat standing on the gate. We did convince her to move it off the gate and onto the fence and slowly moved the thing North until it was behind the well house. It seemed like a good idea....just to keep from freaking out the neighbors.