DamagedGoods
A Eulogy in Advance For Shadow
by , June 5th, 2009 at 03:43 PM (489 Views)
My cat is dying...
She's 23 years old and was an outdoor cat for much of her life, (she was named Shadow, because she's black and because she'd hide in your shadow to sneak out the door, she was supposed to be an indoor cat) she's beaten the odds for an indoor cat, let alone an outdoor one.
We got her when I was 9 years old, we had mice in the house and nothing was getting rid of them, so my mom decided we'd try a cat. She took me to go see a litter of kittens that someone was giving away, there were 2 identical black ones that I immediately wanted... I was only allowed to have one though, so I went with the first one I was able to catch; and thus Shadow was added to our family. She was a devil, a cute pure black devil. She thoroughly enjoyed killing things, she liked to take her time. We put a bell on her, asides tolling the death of small creatures it really had no effect. I can just imagine mice telling their babies "Be careful else the bell toll for thee!!" when reprimanding them for staying out too late. She was known to climb pant legs for a set of jangling keys. She attacked my friend's lips when she made the mistake of making a kissy face at her; good time good times.
She is half-Siamese and as such... liked to talk, loudly and often. She followed me everywhere, and would come when I called. I am her person, she seems to be under the impression she owns me... I'm not sure she's wrong. When I was 15 I was given a German Shepherd puppy for my birthday, Shadow wasn't impressed. When we first brought Sasha home, she came running up and tried to jump up on me (she was 4 months old and rather large) Shadow apparently thought Sasha was attacking me & flew from the other side of the room to leap onto my lap and fend off the vicious dog trying to lick me to death. I'm not sure how she figured a 10 lb cat was going to take on a 40lb puppy, but that seemed to be her secondary concern. She is about the least skittish cat I've ever known, I don't think I've ever seen her get startled.
She is the last living vestige of my childhood, somehow that makes it all the harder. My mother had a nickname for her, "Slutcat" and she earned it, believe me. We lived on a main street and I can still remember my mother out on the front lawn after Shadow had escaped past her when she had opened the front door. "GET BACK HERE YOU SLUTCAT!!" was heard across the neighbourhood, followed by my mom's realization that she was out in public whilst yelling this.
Have you ever been dive-bombed by a freaked out songbird? While peeing? In your own washroom? Which is nowhere near anywhere a songbird should be? Thanks to Shadow, I have... I don't think she was happy with me for allowing it to escape.
So now I wait for the inevitable, and I try to make her last days as comfortable as possible. She isn't suffering, and she mostly sleeps, but she still purrs when I touch her, and although it breaks my heart to be losing her, I am thankful for the years I've had that were more than I had a right to expect, and I'm thankful that at least she is going peacefully.
Go to Profile
Mark as Read
