Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Here Kitty, Kitty... (Bernie Dexter Chelsea Dress)


Our pal and novelty print queen, Bernie Dexter, has been on a roll lately with releasing new dresses on her online shop and they are all so gosh darn adorable!! It's hard to keep up (as well as keep my money in my wallet)!


When I saw the teaser for this adorable teal dress covered in fluffy gray kittens, my heart skipped a beat. I knew I wouldn't be able to resist it!


Then it went live on her website the day before my birthday and let's just say it quickly became my birthday gift to myself. Thank God for Bernie's 25% off coupon floating around right now (I believe 25dress is still active if you wish to go shopping!) - otherwise, I may have never pulled the trigger.


I don't think I have to really explain why I love this dress - I mean LOOK at these kitties! Just look! They're so fluffy and small and sweet. The two snuggling each other are my favorite.

AHHH I just want to pull one off the dress and cuddle it forever!!


This dress makes me nostalgic and makes me want a new fur baby for myself. Growing up, we had two cats in our family. Oreo, our first cat, was a stray that we took in and loved for a few years. He was an outdoor cat and one day just never came home. I was young and don't remember much about him but he was a sweet cat with big double paws.


Our second cat, Lily, came to us as a tiny tiny baby kitty. One of my sister's friends' cat had kittens and we took one home. First things first - we did not name Lily after me! The kittens were already named and Lily was the one that chose us in the end! Since it's nearly impossible for 3 girls at the ages of 10, 11, and 13 to make a decision, my mom decided we'd keep her name as is.


Anyway, I loved Lily. She was such a cute little fuzzy thing that loved carrying tinfoil balls bigger than her in her mouth, licking your ice cream bowl clean (hence the charm bracelet worn for this post!), and stealing our socks. We knew if someone left their laundry out because we'd come home from school to find a trail of socks all over the house, leading up the stairs to our rooms.

See! She is literally sitting on the back of the couch (and my shoulder), waiting to get her share of my ice cream! 

As we grew up, Lily grew with us. Through high school she kind of became my buddy. As we all moved out or went to college, Lily became my sidekick. So much so that I brought her with me when I moved into an apartment of my own after college and she stayed with me for the last 3 years of her life - I called it our bachelorette pad.

Lily and I chillin' in our apartment (my first apartment) 4 years ago

She sadly passed away two years ago and I got to be there - holding her hand - to say thank you and goodbye. It was an extremely painful thing to do (it was quite the scene: my dad, mom, and I, all blubbering over our pet cat!) but she had stopped eating and drinking due to a growth in her jaw and there wasn't much to do for it besides pay for an extremely expensive surgery my parents couldn't afford.


I miss her so much still - she was my little baby! - but her work here was done. She comforted me when I struggled at school and in life. She followed me around whenever I visited home from college, probably wondering where the heck I'd been. She blocked the door when I tried to go to work in the morning from our apartment and was meowing at the door every night when I came back.


I have so many memories with her and hope that one day in the near future (when we live somewhere that allows cats!), I'll get to adopt a new tiny fuffball with Cody and will fall in love with her the way I did with Lily.


Phew! Wow. I didn't expect this post to get so deep and sad but in a way, it's not. I don't know if I will feel a bond with another pet as strongly as I felt with her but I am happy I had it with Lily for her 14 years of life and know she made our family happy and helped my teenage years better.


What about you guys? Did you have family pets growing up that made a difference in your life?