Joleen--Part One

A few of my friends, prompted by my obsessive pet posting on social media, suggested I write a blog. One of these friends, Joleen, agreed to be interviewed for this week’s interview post. Here is part one; look for part two next week.

As with all of my friends, Joleen is very interesting. She and I met, we believe, in sixth grade and in art class. She has long, blonde hair, an adorable voice, an easy personality, and a deep love of animals. In fact, she comes from a four-generation animal-loving family.

Her dad, who died tragically when Joleen was young, was a dog man. He was living with cat people, but was allergic to cats. Now, in his commitment to family and love and all living creatures. He went to friends’ homes where cats lived to get used to them and see if his childhood allergies had carried with him. They did not and Fideaux, an intentional pluralization of Fideau (Fido here in the states), an apple-faced Siamese rescued from another family was adopted. This began Joleen’s (and her brother Al’s) tradition of rescued kitties.

Joleen’s first kitty was an Abyssinian who, sadly, died very young due to kidney failure. While death is last part of our life here, there is always a greater incident of illnesses in pets who are over-bred.

“Zap’s early death broke my heart,” Joleen says with a sigh. “I’ll never do that again,” she adds, concerning adopting full-breed pets. Since, Joleen has rescued—all from the street—seven other kitties. Today, she lives with four. We both agree, for us, four is the max for the way we live. Her other three have joined Zap in kittie heaven. We both believe we will see our precious fur babies when it is our time to join them in their eternal peace.

I asked Joleen if she sleeps with her pets. We do. We have an open-door policy so they can go in and out as they please, except for Mimi. She stays with me. Otherwise, no one will get sleep and she will eat all the cat food and poop she can find. Back to Joleen. Yes, she does sleep with her pets, “It’s part of the bonding process and everyone is happy.” I agree. Joleen says the “Relationship becomes reciprocal. They give love, attention, entertainment, and a sense of optimism.” She hopes she gives them the same. I’ve met them all. She certainly does.

I wanted to know a few more things about Joleen and her love of all things animal, such as, what is her favorite animal. I was surprised by her answer because she and Al love, love, love bats (as do I), but her number one favorite is the panther (nonblack, then black). Bats came in second with a special love of the flying fox, then fox, then raptors.

Like many pet lovers, Joleen admits that she takes more pictures of her pets than anyone, or anything, else. “Without question,” are her exact words.

She did provide a few funny stories that all humans with beloved pets will understand. Look for the second half of Joleen’s interview here, next week. Until then, I will leave you with this. When I asked Joleen about her thoughts on people who did not love animals, she says, “Every person I have ever met who did not love animals has been a monster.”

What do you think?