The music is "The Rose"

Abby Rose Edwards Birthdate: May, 1984 Birthplace: Los Angeles, California Nicknames: Abby Tabby, Crabby Abby, Abboty Likes: Being on mommy's lap allatime; spuggeti. Dislikes: Other cats to push me! Goldie. Greatest wish: For my teef to come back!

About the saddest sight I ever saw in my life was that of a bedraggled, thin mama cat and her three kittens who had wandered over the hills of Highland Park and finally found their way to the home of our neighbor. We hadn't met the woman, who had moved in not long before, but she stopped us on our way up the hill, showed us this miserable little troupe and asked what she should do about it. She could keep one of the kittens, she said, but not the mother or the other little ones. What the heck, we had so many already, what's a few more? was our attitude. We took the mother, a Lynx-point Siamese mix, and the two brown tabby-and-white kittens, who couldn't have been more than a couple of months old. We brought them home and fed them, then let them blend in with our other kids. Unfortunately the mother cat wandered off not long afterwards, then one of the kittens went. Abby, as we had named her, stayed. Thirteen years later she's still with us, and none the worse for wear. Except that most of her teeth have gone south over the past few years.

She has a sweet disposition, wanting only to lie on laps and be petted most of the time. She does get a bit cranky and packs a mean swat when another cat gets too close to her and wakes her up, but that's an elderly lady's privilege. She does have an appetite, and tells us with strident cries when she's hungry, which is most of the time. One of her favorite meals is spaghetti--from my plate! She waits not too patiently for me to hold up a long strand of it, then snaps and grabs it in her toothless mouth and sucks it up faster than most humans can. I'm so glad sweet litle Abby came to live with us--and stayed.