On this beautiful November day, as I sit at my computer with one cat in my lap and my senior sleeping nearby in her super warm bed, I am grateful to all the cats that I’ve had in my life.
My very first cat came into my life when I was 5 years old. I don’t remember if Midnight was a boy or a girl, but I vividly remember a sleek and beautiful solid black house panther. Midnight, and our German Shepherd, Wolfgang, both needed to be rehomed when my Air Force father got stationed in Germany for 3 years. We knew that it would be cruel to have to quarantine them for months on each side of the move.
While in Germany, we didn’t have cats or dogs, much to my dismay. I was sure that the addition of either to our family would make our life perfect. I waited for 3 very long years for some new family members. In the meantime, I had to content mself with books and a brother with cooties.
After our return to the states, we soon acquired the first of two cat and dog combinations. T.V. was our first. He was black and white, and stuck by his dear doggie friend Shadow like, well, a Shadow. T.V. taught me that cats could be fun! He chased Shadow around the house, and at night, would groom him as if he were another cat. I don’t know what disease took our noble young man, but I cried my heart out when we lost him.
One cold December day, my parents gave me a long-haired white boy cat for my birthday. I named him Percy, because in my pre-teen brain that hadn’t researched cat breeds, all long-haired cats were Persians. Percival Lancelot loved to sleep at my side every night, and I told him all of my deepest and darkest secrets. In the 80s, in our lower-class neighborhood, none of us knew about the dangers of un-neutered animals. So when our intact boy wanted to roam, we let him roam. There was a time when my boy Percy disappeared. It could have been days, or weeks, but again, I cried, sure that I had lost my one true friend. Percy finally came home, and he was a different cat. His desire to roam was gone, and he stayed close by my side. Now that I’m wiser about cats, I realize that means that Percy encountered something that stuck in his kitty memory and shook him to the core. But back then, I was just happy to have the return of my white knight with the slight streak of orange down the middle of his back. One day, during our long talks, I noticed that Percy wasn’t as attentive as usual. In fact, he was downright sleepy, and a little pale. For a teenager to notice that a white cat was pale was a pretty interesting feat. My parents scraped together enough money to take Percy to the vet and get him checked out, and he never came home. Percy had picked up Feline Leukemia on his travels, and the vet felt the most humane thing to do was send him to the Rainbow Bridge. I never got to say goodbye to my furry friend, and I think my heart shrank two sizes that day. My dad’s did too, because through his tears, he told me that he couldn’t bear to say goodbye to another animal after that, and we were under orders to acquire no more pets for our house. With Percy, I learned the value of vetting pets, and vowed that all my future animals would have “the works” done for them.
After both of my parents died, a former best friend/roommate decided that the ticket to healing my grieving heart was to gift me a cat. Sphinx was a stray that somebody had acquired and decided to get rid of after giving her the worst possible name, and my friend brought her to me without asking. And then my friend moved out without warning. For a time, I resented the kitty offering, and just wanted my parents and best friend back. Time heals all wounds, though, and eventually, I fell in love with Sphinx. Sphinx kept me alive during the darkest winter of my life, and she gave me a reason to get out of bed. I soon discovered her sense of humor late one night when I woke to my mooing cow welcome mat. Around 3am, I heard a cow mooing over and over. It would stop for a few seconds, and then start back up. Shaking like a leaf, and wondering why I moved into such a horrible neighborhood, I quietly tiptoed to my dresser, pulled out my .380 and loaded it. I crept down the hall doing my best imitation of every police show I’d ever watched. I hugged the wall, crossed the doorway to the kitchen, and gripped my gun with determined and shaky hands. There sat Sphinx, staring at my cow mat, and reaching out one delicate paw to get it to moo. We both startled each other at the same time, and I was extremely grateful that I’d forgotten to undo the safety on my gun. Together, Sphinx and I had our ups and downs, and our friendship lasted longer than the one with my former roomate. Sphinx became one of my longest-lived cats until the Melamine Cat Food Recall. We said goodbye to each other on Valentine’s Day 2008, and through my tears, I thanked her for making me want to live through the dark winter of 1993.
I’ve had 4 more cats since Sphinx. Three were a family made up of a momma cat and her two daughters. T.V., our black and white girl was the smartest cat I ever met, and her death from lung cancer on St. Patrick’s Day,2008, broke my husband’s heart as much as it did mine. T.V. gave us the gift of her daughters, Muskrat and Piglet. Muskrat ran away one cold December in 2007, and we never saw her again. She had stayed feral, even though we had known her since kittenhood. We learned from Muskie that some cats need some extra care to get used to humans. And Piglet, the last survivor of her small family, is now 15 years old. She’s the most talkative cat that I’ve ever had, but comes to me in the night with soft paws and sweet purrs to get petted and brushed. Fluffy is our most recent acquisition. He has a fierce love of running water, and Whiskas Temptation’s Savory Seafood Medley. I’m not sure which love is greater, but with Fluffy, I always know where I stand. He’s a quietly dignified goofball with an ability to make even my worst days better.
Every cat in my life has given me a gift, taught me a lesson, helped me, and gifted me with unconditional love. For all those things, today, and every day, I’m grateful to all the cats I’ve loved. ~noelle~
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