Sunday, December 9, 2007

My cat


I glanced over from the exercise machine this morning and saw my cat slinking through shadows in another part of the basement. When I finished working out, I sat on the couch to watch the end of the DVD I use as a treat to get myself on the exercise machine in the first place. I noticed the furry, speckled ball curled up on the next cushion and reached out to pet her.

Problem is, my Kitty's been dead since last April. The ball of fur sitting next to me was a hat I’d been wearing to warm my bald head before I started exercising.

Now, this was not a grim-reaper-and-a-bright-white-light moment. I’ve been sensing my cat’s presence for the past eight months. It doesn’t surprise me that my house has absorbed her rhythms and plays them back to me on occasion. She was a deaf, forgetful, old lady the last few years of her life, but she filled my home and my heart.

I could always count on a loud scolding from her when I walked into the house after being away. And there were frequent signs that she romped and cavorted, even when I wasn’t home. She loved to curl up in my lap… along with my laptop, or perch on top of the printer while I worked, or doze in one of the many baskets she loved as much as I do. She sat in a window and watched every step I took to the mailbox and back. She never ate table food… except for ice cream which she licked daintily from a spoon. And she always slept in my bed.

She was my friend, my soul mate, for nearly nineteen years. I was with her when she died and it was one of the saddest moments of my life.

Good heavens, I miss that cat!

3 comments:

Cathy Pountney said...

We get very attached to our pets!! We had our dog, Molly, for 17 years. It was 4 years ago when she passed away .. and just a few weeks ago we finally got a new dog, Rusty. The experience has been bringing back a lot of memories of Molly.

Anonymous said...

I can emphathize with you! I had to put my cat, Waldo, down almost 4 years ago. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I still start to cry just remembering it.

--Barbara Peisch

Ceil said...

It's amazing how attached to them we get! Maybe because there's no language, we have to find more primal means of communication. It gets really deeply embedded in our being and is not easily flushed when they go.

It's one of those wonderful/terrible experiences. They shower us with unconditional love... and then they leave. The memories however, are really precious.