My friend

This is not even tangentially related to this site’s subject, but there’s little point to having your own blog if you can’t follow your own arbitrary whims from time to time.  I’m planning on getting a cat from the animal shelter within a week or two, and I’d wanted to post something in memory of my old cat for a while, so now seems like the time.

I got Kira from a local shelter in 2000, when she was about 9 months old.  I noticed her when I was walking past the rows of cages, and she reached out her front paw and touched me, then pushed her cheek against the cage bars and tried to rub against my hand.  Quite a stroke of good fortune for both of us- she had been abandoned there for a while, and was a few days away from being euthanized.  Despite being fairly skittish with most people, she seemed to take to me quickly, and so I adopted her.

She loved to sit by the windows, where she could enjoy the sunlight and watch the birds.  Once she got used to company, she liked to come up to people, sit nearby, and stick one of her paws out and rest it on the person’s hand.  She would always sleep in someone’s bed, preferably with someone in it.  She was quite noisy; she had a very loud rumbling purr and would greet people she liked with a sort of chirping sound.

She died too soon.  On June 30th of 2008, a tumor that had been growing in her stomach suddenly burst.  She had no chance of recovery, and she was put down the same day.  It was very sudden; she continued on happily with her usual activities until the last few hours of her life.  I’m grateful for that small mercy.

She was a wonderful cat, and I was lucky to have her in my life for 8 years.  The woman in charge of the cats at the shelter (I’ve always mentally referred to her as the “cat wrangler,” though sadly her real job title probably wasn’t as cool) said she had been neglected and possibly abused by her prior owners, so I guess I was able to give her something better than she would have had otherwise.  I hope I did.  She deserved it.