I first met my friend Georganna at a Petco on Lancaster Avenue in Haverford, PA. I shopped there for several years and made the trip at least once a week. I think I had five cats of my own at that time.
A woman who rescued stray and feral cats was able to exhibit up to ten cats and kittens at a time for adoption in the store. She depended on volunteers to care for them on a daily basis. It was hard to get volunteers and keep them as it was a never-ending process. The store employees had no responsibilities other than keep keys to the cages if a potential adopter wanted to see individual kitties. When I would visit the store I would always say hello to the cats and kittens in the cages. I was horrified at the state of the cages especially if I shopped on days when the volunteers hadn't shown up yet.
Hence, I would ask for keys to the cages and would give the cats fresh water and even purchased food for them. The bedding could be disgustingly soiled and I would change it and even scoop the litter pans. I could not bear to see cats living in such conditions. Eventually I became the person who took home huge trash bags of soiled bedding to wash and return on my next shopping-for-cat-food-expedition. There were also stray cats hanging around in the parking lot, I suppose for any broken bags of spilled cat food. I decided to buy cat food to leave outside for them too. Homeless animals break my heart. It was unbearable to me that these poor kitties had no one to care for them.
It was on a day when I happened to be scooping litter inside the store that the beautiful Georganna stopped by to chat with me about the cats. I told her about my volunteer activities at the store and that I was going on a trip and would not be available to put out food behind the store for the strays. She unhesitatingly volunteered to feed them while I was away. Turns out she too was a born bonafided cat lady. We exchanged phone numbers. She took care of the strays and ferals while I was away.
I called her when I returned and she said she did not mind stopping by a few days a week to feed the strays. This took a lot of pressure off me and she paid for the food she fed them. This developed into an almost three year activity for us with her deciding to trap the ferals and find them homes, some in her own.
We decided to go out for drinks and loved each other's company so much, we began to meet and talk more and more and discovered we had so much in common despite a 23 year age difference between us. We both had been fashion models, both attractive tall blondes, both lovers of rap/hip hop music. She loved my style, I loved hers. She was attending the PA Academy of Fine Arts during this time and had a studio there where she painted late into the night. For safety walking the streets of Philadelphia so late she always took her beautiful German Shepherd, Grizzly.
She began visiting me late in the evenings to watch Ali G on HBO, talk and laugh. We became very close friends. She was my sister/soulmate.
Georganna has had many shows since I first met her. She is a prolific artist. Her next show features paintings of "gangstas," big and small cats, nudes and other people. You should have seen her prison inmate series. We don't see each other very often anymore but I think of her every day.
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