In Memoriam

Today's posting is a special one. I have enjoyed the companionship of two wonderful cats for nearly 16 years. They came into my life at 14 weeks, sisters from the same litter. Isis has a gray coat with some brown in there and Jet is a "tuxedo" with white paws and a bit of white under her chin. They have been wonderful companions through thick and thin. Out of the blue on Monday, Jet was suddenly very listless. When I took her to the vet Tuesday morning, it was discovered that she had acute kidney disease. Though a great shock, given the prognosis it seemed the moment had arrived for me to say goodbye. I had her euthanized there at the vet's, brought her home and buried her that day in one of her favorite spots in the garden. Though the pain is still fresh, I wanted to share a bit about her in this blog, appropriate because among other things Jet was my "garden" cat.
Sometimes the names we give to our pets wind up being very appropriate. Nowhere was that more so than with Jet. I gave her that name in part because of her black coat (Jet black) but mainly because she had more energy than any cat I'd ever been around. She'd race around my apartment with a crazed kind of energy, sometimes ending with scaling the drapes. Even up to the end, she wouldn't simply push through the cat door like her sister but race through on her way to the food dish. Even as I lay in bed, lights out, I could recognize the sound of her galloping across the floor.
Her favorite place was the garden. She would wait by the door on my days off, look at me as if to say "Are you going out in the garden now? What about now?" She would watch me with detached curiosity as I worked in the garden, follow me around when I watered so she could lap up the excess water and keep an eye on proceedings on her street. When I brought home a ceramic bird bath and installed it in the front garden, she took a liking to it. Not because she was a birder, but because it held water. She'd stretch up her hind legs and get her nose just over the rim of the birdbath so she could have a drink. I always wanted to get a photo of that, just a black head resting on the red birdbath, but I never got around to it.
One comfort I have is that Jet lived her entire life free of injury or disease. She just seemed impermeable to anything, a kind of super cat where the normal laws didn't apply. I feel so lucky that her end came quickly and without much pain. And I'm equally thankful that I continue to have Isis' company.
Anyway, here are a few photos of Jet, both by herself and with her sister. Her spirit will be with me always.