Here is a piece I wrote back in 2009 just because. It made me tear up a bit. I have no idea what I thought I might do with it. So, posting it here. It has nothing to do with anything other than…well, I wrote it!
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| Love Bug and part of Flash. Our current overlords. |
I was not a cat person growing up. There was something about them I never really
liked. They didn’t come when you called,
they didn’t play with you or do tricks or any of the other things that decent,
reasonable pets were supposed to do. My
entire childhood we always had dogs. I
got my first dog that was all my own when I was in sixth grade. He was a poodle with black and white
hair. I named him pepper. One day, in high school I bought what turned
to be one of my favorite books , it was called ‘101 Uses For a Dead Cat’. In all my born days I never thought I would
ever like cats.
The last year I spent at Northwestern University, I had two
roommates and a couple of girls who crashed at our place every now and
then. One afternoon, one of my roommates
informed me that, Sharon, a girl we knew from the theatre department, needed a
place to stay for a couple of weeks.
They asked if I minded if she crashed with us. I didn’t mind, she was only one in a long
line of people who’d spent time with us.
What my roommates failed to tell me was that Sharon had three cats.
I dragged in from class one afternoon and opened the door to
a very unpleasant smell, the likes of which I had never experienced. My first thought was that someone had put
something nasty in the garbage and not thrown it out. Imagine my great joy to enter the living room
and find an enormous, yellow cat box with a cover sitting in the corner behind
the table. Sharon was busily scooping
the cat box. She apologized about the
smell and promised she’d keep on top of the litter. I didn’t know what to say. I went to my room, closed the door and prayed
fervently that none of the horrid, furry beasts was anywhere nearby.
I don’t recall what any of the cat names were, and I only
remember one of them. It was yellow and
white and without question the friendliest animal I’d ever encountered. It wanted to sit on me, followed me lovingly
around the house, and mewed at the bathroom door when I was taking a
shower. I don’t know why it took a
liking to me, but it did.
Some people believe that spirit guides come to them to show
them the way to their true selves. The
eagle can bring you strength or wisdom, the wolf shows you the way to loyalty
and strength, the mouse is industrious and quick. I never went in search of a spirit guide, but
my last few months in college, one came looking for me. That yellow and white animal made me find a
place in my heart for cats.
About a week after Sharon was staying with us, my roommate,
Fay, and I began discussing maybe getting a kitten at some point. I thought it might be nice to have a cute
little animal after we graduated from college.
Sharon was listening as we talked about it. The next day, I came in from working at
Kinkos and Sharon was grinning from ear to ear.
“Guess what I did?”
She asked.
“What?”
“I got you a kitten!”
That she had. Hiding
under my bed, in the back of the apartment, was a little black and white
kitten.
Sharon explained her actions thus. “I was down by the lake fill and this woman
had a box full of them. She asked if I
knew anyone who wanted a kitten and I remember that you and Fay said you were
planning to get one, and I got one for you.
Surprise!”
I had just gotten used to the idea of liking cats and now I
was going to be responsible for taking care of one. I didn’t really know anything all about
cats. When Fay came home from work, she
informed me that she didn’t know anything about cats either.
There was a vet that was just around the corner. We didn’t have a pet carrier so we took the
little thing to the vet in our hands. Of
course it needed shots, not to mention a litter box, nail clippers, toys and I
don’t even remember what else. That
month, we spent the rent on the cat.
We moved during that month and had to forfeit our security
deposit.
We named the cat Pookie after the Irish demon called a
Pookah. Pookie was a demon. He loved to climb up this tapestry we had by
the front door. He’d hear the key in the
lock and he’d jump down on our heads. He
loved to play hide and seek. If you
counted, he’d run out of the kitchen and hide and wait for you to find
him. If you ran out of the kitchen while
counting, he’d wait and then go in search of you. If he didn’t find you he’d cry and cry until
you came out from where you were hiding.
He loved climbing up the clothes in the closet and hiding amongst my
sweaters on the top shelf. But his
favorite thing to do was lay in wait for my roommate, Kerry, who would get up
in the morning and head down the hall for breakfast. If she was wearing
stockings, Pookie would jump out, scare her and then snag her stockings with
his claws and run away.
Eventually, to save the tapestries, our clothes and to
prevent Kerry from having to buy a nylon factory, we had Pookie’s claws
removed. Yes, I know, but back in the
day that’s what vets used to recommend.
Pookie became even more challenging. Now, we couldn’t hear
him at all when he moved and he took special delight in scaring the be jeebers
out of all of us.
One of the things that I found most interesting about Pookie
is that he hated men. He didn’t like any of the dates I brought home. He would jump out at them, slap them across
the head or the knees and arch his back at them and hiss. He delighted in making them jumpy. I started using him as a barometer. If he gave a guy a hard time, I wouldn’t go
out on a second date.
When Fay, Kerry and I were planning to get separate apartments,
I asked to keep Pookie. Fay had moved
into an apartment that didn’t allow pets, so she didn’t argue. I was now the proud owner of a calculating
cat.
When I was 24, I met a young man who was related to my new
roommate, Denise. Our first date lasted
14 hours, and during that very long time I learned that he wasn’t much of a cat
person, and was slightly allergic to them.
I decided not to tell him about Pookie.
On that first date, I invited David back to my place for
cookies. He came into the apartment and
sat on the couch in the living room. I
went into the kitchen. After a few
minutes, I heard a concerned voice.
“Donna. There’s a cat
staring at me from the hall. Is he
okay?”
“That’s just pookie.”
I told him. “He’s not very social
with guys, don’t take your eyes off him.”
A few minutes later I heard loud purring. I looked around the corner and Pookie was
sitting in David’s lap acting like he had swallowed a motor. David had a look on his face that was amazing
to see, he had been hopelessly transfixed.
I knew that look. It was the look
of someone who has found their spirit guide.
The two of them sat there, reveling in each other’s lives. From that moment, Pookie threw me over for
David.
In 2007, Pookie succombed to stomach cancer. I remember sitting in the family room with
our children about two months after Pookie left us. David and I were still looking for him. Both of my children loved Pookie as well and
they began telling stories about him. He
was quite a fellow. David and I laughed
about the silly things that cat had done and all the joy he’d brought to our
lives. Then, after we’d lapsed into
silence, I said to my children, “Did I
ever tell you guys that Pookie is the reason I married your dad?”
They both laughed at that and asked me how that was possible
and I told them.
“You see, I was not a cat person when I was growing up….
Happy Remembering!
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