By Marc
On the last day of June last year I found Red had died nearby my house in a garden next to a main road. This article is just a little memorial for him. Many of you know plenty about him and I have focused less on those things and more on the very beginning and the very end of his life with me. I have talked plenty – if not too much – about the middle. I specifically asked Michael to just put the pictures in sequence and although I have made the pics relatively small it may take a while to load up the 24 pictures so you might need to give it a moment. It’s just how I wanted it and Michael has been very accommodating. I’m doing a ‘commentathon’ today which I will talk about in the paragraph at the end after the photos. They are in a specific order. Michael has simply done exactly what I asked. Thank you Michael, from the bottom of my heart – really.
So there it is – a little bit about the beginning and the end of Red to remember him – he will never end in some other sense but that was some of his short life on this planet. There will be other articles today – this is just the first.
For all the comments made on any article today including this one I am going to donate $5 to PoC.
I always read PoC everyday but I never made much in the way of comments until about 5 weeks after Red died when I was forced out of my deep depression by having to fly off to England for work reasons. I had just spent the last weeks with Lilly being very sad and unable to eat or do much of anything really, least of all talk to people. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I had no idea, and now I do. Red was like a son to me. I don’t know why – I mean for many reasons he was – and it just turned out this way that I had to lose him. He was the happiest cat that ever lived save a couple days when he moved to our new place and had to be locked in for a short period. I’m proud of the fact that I was able to make his life so great. He got whatever he wanted and he was healthy and always busy and always purring, even whilst he was eating. Purring and eating made him sound a bit like a gremlin!
He loved Lilly so much and she loved him equally. He even welcomed the new 2 kittens with such grace and ease I was so proud of what a great boy he had grown into. Truly a beautiful thing in my life.
The point of the commentathon is simple. Ever since I started commenting and talking about Red everybody here has been so kind to me and it has helped me to no end and it still does, even right now with what I am doing here today. It would be so hard to deal with all this alone. I am doing it to say thank you to you all and to Michael especially for letting me be me and express myself on PoC everyday. The idea is that he will take the money and know best how to donate it to charity. It’s from all of us and it is in memory of Red.
The only condition will be that Michael keep at least a bit of it for him and Charlie. I already am guessing he will insist on donating it all so I’m not telling him that he has to at least keep enough to go out and buy Charlie some roast chicken. That’s the minimum he’s allowed to keep. Michael if you are planning a catio or something in your new house please use the money for it if you want. It’s totally in your hands. You are just not allowed to give every last penny to charity without keeping at least something for you. Those are the rules 🙂
I am around today most of the day and will disappear later to go and spend the evening at Red’s grave planting some new flowers. I always buy orange and red flowers because he was so beautifully orange – a beautiful orange tabby. Comment away, there’s no cutoff – and we will tally it all up tomorrow or later.
THANK YOU all for being such great listeners and friends and for helping me get over this and not feel alone. You guys are the best.
Michael, Connie has to be the greatest fosterer of cats there is and she also knows everything about cat nutrition, everything, or as much as one can know with hands on experience, and a whole lot more too. She has a wonderful blog which I read.
Hi Connie – thanks for commenting and thanks for reading. Thank you for caring and being so kind. Charlie is Michael’s cat with three legs. He’s a big house panther with a deep meow.
Thank you for sharing my sadness. It means alot and has left me not feeling alone over all of this. Being able to talk to people who understand has helped immensly. I’ve talked so much about Red on here and that’s why I want something to go to Michael and Charlie 🙂
Thank you Dan – it means a lot it really does. You described perfectly how it is being wanted by a cat. It’s a great honor really that a cat wants nothing more than to spend time with you – your company. I value that above most things, or anything I can think of right now anyway.
Sometimes I think that if I hadn’t taken Red home with me he would have lived a long life and that choosing him was a bit of a death sentence but then I remember how he chose me and how that is just not the right way to think about it. We appreciated eachother alot. We played for hours each day because I worked around the corner 2mins away on foot. I’d go for lunch for an hour and then right after work until almost bedtime I would be hanging out in the garden with the kittens and eventually in the end just Red, his mama Twinky and his grandma Teesha. I’d be so excited to see him I practically ran up there with a spring in my step. I’d make clicking noises and he’d come running around the front of the house. It was wonderful.
Thank you Dorothy – maybe amongst a few cats here and there but the real heroes are the ones on the ‘front lines’ resuing and fostering the countless unwanted animals struggling to survive in the world. Marvin sounds so much like my Red and I have always thought so, in character I mean as well as looks. You are lucky to have him 🙂
Thanks alot Michael. Red was always in those roses but never seemed to get spiked even though he was all over them like they were his toy climbing frame. There was some lavender right next to the roses which seemed to attract all the cats and kittens. Tigeey is a regret. She was by far the shyest and most scared of all the kittens that year. By the end however she would come running when I arrived and arch her back and let me pet her. She would not allow herself to ever be touched for a long long time so when she finally opened up it was very sweet and touching. I made them all little going away bags with toys and their favourite foods in them so they would feel something familiar upon arriving in new places. It all went pretty ok except for Tigeey (my name for her because she looks like a tiger – in Switzerland they are called ‘tigerli’). I was probably the only person who could have got her and maybe just been able to pick her up but having met the lady and her screaming spoilt child boy I couldn’t bring myself to trick Tigeey and take her and then hand her over. 5 mins before they arrived to get her I left and went the 100m back to my office and went in the bathroom and had a good cry. I called expecting it to be over but the lady said that the jet setter and her son had to leave because it wasn’t working and they couldn’t catch tigeey. I know where tigeey went to hide too but didn’t say a word. They had to wait until she was fast asleep in her basket before putting her in the carrier. I wasn’t there. Having taken so long to become close with Tigeey this was very sad for both me and Red. Red loved Tigeey even before all the others left. I have alot of photos with her. I even thought about going to kidnap her can you imagine. I even though if they didn’t come to get her til the next day I would nab her in the night and they could think she ran away. She loved to play like the best of them but would dart off if you put your hand to her and walked towards her. In the end she would let me pet her. The lady whose cats these all were has no concept of anything when it comes to cats. Actually she is going away on monday and I will look after the mama cats and remaining 2 kittens that are there now. I can’t wait to see them without the lady being there.
Can you believe – I asked how the lady who came to see Tigeey was ( only met that lady on her second visit) and she said “oh she’s really nice you know she’s a real jet setter and spends alot of time here and there and everywhere (and she named a few countries) and she is taking the kitten for her 5 year old son.” —- well I just about felt like slapping her. Sounds good, a person who is never around and what turned out to be a bratty little boy who picked up Tigeey like she was a stuffed animal. I wanted to freak out and I asked if I could take her but Geenie (the lady in question with kittens every year) said it was too late and the agreement was done.
That is insightful. We do cry for the love and happiness as well as the loss, which is so sad.