“Da Kitties! <3” Remixed

Sunday, July 24, 2005 at 11:33 am (Uncategorized) (anime, cats)

‘Twas a warm Thursday in July, much like the one we had a few days ago, except the one I’m thinking of happened ten days ago, not a few days ago.  As I write, I enjoy a hot steaming cup of Ramen, and watch My Neighbor Totoro with Ryan.  Incidentally, the Japanese title is Tonari no Totoro.  I’ve got the soundtrack, and learned for the first time that the original opening and ending themes were in Japanese.  Sounds obvious, but at seven, my world revolved around English. 

The point.

On Thursday, July 14, 2005, my family once again had cats for the first time in nearly eight years.

As a child, my memories are largely filled with the most wonderful old cat, a big girl at sixteen pounds.  Long black fur, with a curious white patch on her neck, intelligent green eyes, and the softest paws.  It sounds silly, but Gizmo raised me.  She was originally a stray with kittens when my aunt first found her, and she lived with them and the family’s other seven cats.  My aunt was sort of the “crazy-cat-lady,” except she’s fun.  I seem to take after her a lot.  Gizmo was the queen of the lot, agressive about her territory, and she didn’t tolerate the other cats.  That’s why she came to us.  I was still small then, and Gizmo sort of “adopted” me.  She came to me whenever I was sad or lonely, she protected me when my dad tried to pull my tooth.

I think she knew she was dying.  Every night for a long time, she came to me, sat on me and purred, kneaded my shoulder, occasionally meowing and making me feel warm.  On one trip home from the vet, I noticed moisture in the corner of her eyes, like teardrops.

She died at the end of August 1997, a few days before school started.  My mother, brother, and I were in Modesto visiting my grandparents, and we had an uncle and aunt visiting our home.  My father called us, told us, and we cried for a long time that night.  When we got home, he showed us the patch in the garden where he buried her.

For a long time, it looked like our home would never be blessed with a warm animal again.  Ryan was born in March the next year, and a new animal would be too much to handle along with a baby.

Cont’d later.