OUR PETS
Pets are part of family memories
BY JENNIFER BAILEY ILLIANA MAGAZINE
I
’ ve always considered myself a cat person since I can remember .
Growing up in central Illinois , we always had a cat as part of our family . I mostly remember Kingsford ( as in the brand of charcoal ), Sammy and Sylvester .
When I started dating my husband , Sky , I didn ’ t have a pet at the time in my apartment , and he had a cat named Pazuzu .
She was such a sweet , all-black cat .
In 2007 , the year before our son ,
Revan , was born , we went to the Danville Humane Society and adopted a cute grey and white kitten . My husband suggested the name Hermione from the Harry Potter books .
We hadn ’ t had a kitten in a while .
She was quite a handful when we got her . She climbed the curtains , unrolled the toilet paper roll , got tissues out of the box and climbed and knocked ornaments off our Christmas tree . She was awfully cute though , especially when she slept . Ha !
The older cat , Pazuzu , didn ’ t like the new kitten .
When I learned I was pregnant and we had relatives help paint Revan ’ s room , Hermione also got some paint on her fur .
When we had Revan in 2008 , my doctor told me we shouldn ’ t have cats in the house due to bringing a baby home . I remember crying at the hospital saying that I didn ’ t want to get rid of our cats .
We ended up keeping the cats in a different room at night when Revan slept , and we also kept a close eye on them going near the baby .
After about two years with both cats , just as other cats had gotten older and had health issues , we sadly had to put Pazuzu down .
Hermione ended up getting a dog brother , too , with the arrival of Oso .
Sky wanted Revan to grow up with a dog . I never had a dog , so I didn ’ t know what to expect with a dog ’ s needs .
14 ILLIANA MAGAZINE — SUMMER 2022