If you're not a pet lover or a cat lover, you may not want to read any farther, because today's blog is an ode to my faithful, loving companion for most of the past 19 years.
Alex entered my life as a tiny, bobbed-tail kitten who had been found in an alley at 4 weeks old after her mother was killed by animal control near Boulder, Colorado. Even though she had been fostered for a month in a home with numerous children, cats, and dogs, she was still running for corners when I brought her to my two-room apartment. I was a single 24-year-old just out of school and on my own for the first time. In our time together, she transitioned from kitten to adult to elderly cat. I went from fresh-faced 20-something to 40-something married woman with a few wrinkles around the eyes.
She was the second, smaller cat for almost 10 years. In her subordinate status, she was quiet and more in the background. We took that for a sign of some sort of deeper connection and applied a Quaker phrase to her - Little Kitty in the Light.When she became the only cat, we realized that she was just waiting for her turn to be top cat. We found out that she did have opinions on many matters and was not shy about letting us know when things weren't quite going the way she wanted.
For me, her most dominant characteristic was her affectionate nature. She may have run when anyone else was around, but for me, she was always waiting at the door when I got home and anxious to be picked up and hugged. She usually reciprocated with a lick to my eyebrows. And that's what I'll miss the most ~ walking through the door and knowing that someone really wants to see me, and only me, and to just be with me.
Paul used to tell people that I was Alex's queen, and I would reply that Alex was the princess. Today, I'm back to being just a commoner, and the Princess has gone to live with the stars.
1 comment:
Corinne, Sorry to hear about Alex. The cat I had before my current two also lived to 19, and it was pretty sad when she finally had to be put to sleep. I'd had her for so long it was like putting down a member of the family, but Aja had pretty bad kidney disease and I couldn't bear to watch her suffer anymore. I'd been able to nurse her back to health a couple of years earlier, but this time I didn't think she had the strength to come back a second time. I went without a cat for about a year, and now have two sisters from the same litter who turn 7 years old in June.
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