[noise]

I realized early this morning that I’d totally forgotten to write anything yesterday, and so after breakfast and errands I sat down this morning and was just about to crack my knuckles and get to work when B came to tell me he’d found Kelli dead in the cat room.

I sort of check for dead cats every time I go in there, or whenever I can’t find one of them.  Kelli’s old and been in poor health for a long stretch now, Jamie’s even older and getting pretty creaky, plus she’s deaf and when I can’t find her calling for her does no good (so I flash the lights on and off and knock on furniture).  grep is only 8 or 9, a relative spring chicken.  So it wasn’t extremely shocking news, and when he asked me to go check and see if she was really dead I wasn’t particularly surprised, but I still feel rotten about it.

I think quality of life went up some when we moved, since the dogs had harassed the cats to the point that they mostly lurked in inaccessible places, but I left them shut in their room here more often than they probably liked.  They have certain times when the dogs get shut out of the back of the house and I let them roam, but it wasn’t daily and I didn’t necessarily spend much time back there with them when they were loose.  Kelli rarely went far when she was loose; she hadn’t felt great for a long time and mostly spent her time laying on the tile in the hallway.

She hadn’t been easy to deal with for a long time.  She’d been crazy for a very long time, but after Dork died and after new puppies came, she started living in strange places, staying in the bathtub or a cabinet, she lived on the roof and in trees for several months after we got Gir.  When she would come see us, she was kind of violent in her affection.

But her crazy was certainly distinct and her personality was much bigger than her little tortie body.  And she loved us (she loooooved B, and would let him carry her around like a baby), and we loved her even when she was hard to love, and the house will be a little quieter without her vast lexicon of weird noises.

I don’t know how the other two cats are taking it.  I spent all day in the bedroom with them (putting off a software upgrade that I’m going to have to do later tonight), throwing pecans for grep to play with and turning on the heating pad for Jamie to lay her creaky bones on (until grep evicted her and she asked to get down to go back to her room).  I picked up some new catnip toys for Jamie and some balls for grep to chase, and treats, and I feel funny putting down their twice-daily wet food because I don’t know how much to give them now.  Kelli was the one who needed it, dry food seemed to give her stomach problems.

I am very grateful to B for stepping in for me.  When I went to see if she was really dead, I couldn’t bring myself to pick up her body.  B handled that, putting her in an Amazon box (is there anything an Amazon box can’t do?) to take her to the emergency vet to arrange for cremation, so she can join Dork in the Creepy Cabinet Pet Sematary.  I will probably find a little tortie figurine like the one I have for Dork (which predated his death and was a dead ringer for him); I prefer my dead pets portable so I don’t feel shitty about moving and leaving them buried in the yard.

So, if you are so inclined, raise a toast to Krazy, Krazy Kelli, with the i dotted with a heart, because hers was big (and very crazy) and she will be missed.

In: Stuff | | #