October 14, 2024
At long last, our familia has had to say our final farewell to La Gatita con Manchas (Cat with Patches). She showed up in our yard in the summer of 2006 hunting in our woodpiles and never having any interest in us at all. That Thanksgiving, when Michelle was pregnant and with all of her family here for the holiday, she was standing on my porch meowing loudly at me when I went to take the post-repast trash out. Of course I took pity and shared some of the bounty from our table.
Although she casually belonged to the people who bought the horse farm across the street, they dropped her and her then 2-year old daughter cat at the barn for many weeks while they renovated the house and lived a couple miles away. She was quite fine as a feral cat, crisscrossing busy Snickersville Turnpike to come hunt our woodpiles and hayfields. After that holiday though, she became our 2nd cat, and Thanksgiving was always our "Gotcha" celebration.
They guessed that she was 4 or 5 years old then, which means that she's somewhere around 22-23 years old - oldest cat I've ever had by far! And while she seemed to be failing a few times over the last few years, she'd soon rally and seem quite fine again.
She had a typical calico cat temperament, but she's been mostly deaf and pretty blind for the past few years. Once she no longer heard "calico scary noises", she spent time visiting with MANY of my guitar students over the past few years, and pretty much all of them would take a moment to scratch her chin or her ears. She has been a fixture in the "Make-a-Living Room" for my livestream concerts as well as lessons.
It's only been these last couple of days when she was obviously struggling. It is so hard when you know it's time and that it's the right thing to do, and even though you're grateful to be there with your beloved family member when they need you to open that door to what lies beyond for them.
She's been here for every single day of Madi's life. She's been in this now-empty living room for many years. She was a good cat, and although we are heartbroken, she's no longer suffering. I believe in my aching heart she's gone to her well-deserved greater reward. Con todos nuestra amor a Gatita, siempre ❤️
She and Gatito are waiting for the baby who would come the very next day. Miss him a ton too still.
She wasn't intimidated by the big cat or the little kid, but she would definitely flee her own shadow or the littlest sounds.
Christmas mischief during the pandemic year - brief outbursts of shenanigans were always a surprise in her later years. Glad I caught this session.
Resting comfortably in one of her happy places just a week ago. ❤️