Thoughts

Wide Turns

Every morning Kitty would walk down the stairs with me to the Kitchen for Kitty breakfast. Usually very excited, she’d always be in lead on the way down the stairs. About two thirds of the way down the stairs there is a landing with a 90 degree right turn. As she trotted her way down she would always swing very wide left before the landing so she she could cut into the turn with a wider angle and keep her speed up. I’d always have to watch out for this so I didn’t step on her or get tripped. She was always so happy to get her breakfast.

Rolling

After Kitty greeted you with a shakebutt she’d often like to roll upside down to show you her belly with an upside down curl, or sometimes into an upside down stretch. She was not very graceful with the roll. Starting from standing, she’d get so excited and happy to see you that she’d dive head first into the floor. She’d try to do it so that she’d be rolling when she hit the floor so it wasn’t as hard of a hit, but she usually didn’t get it right and there would be a loud clunk as her head hit the floor. I always worried that she’d get hurt but she never seem phased by the collisions at all, just happy to see you.

Captain Kitty

Kitty really liked to play with laundry baskets, especially ones with lots of holes. If it was upright she’d jump inside and sit, just hanging out in it. She would do this unproked to try and get everyone to play with her. My dad would call her “Captain Kitty”, she looked like a little boat captain getting ready for a voyage.

Her favorites were little stuffed mice and feather sticks moving around on the outside of the basket or poking into the holes, giving her a chance to stalk and attack. She’d start by grabbing things with her paws, and then as she got lazy she’d just start trying to bite anything that poked through.

She never wanted to stop, even when she got tired. No longer trying to get anything, instead just watching. If you stopped moving stuff around though, she would go hey, why did you stop. But if playtime was over, she usually gave a thank you shake butt.

Support Cat

Kitty was always aware of how I was feeling. Whenever I was sick, she’d always try to lay on top of me. Normally she’d try to lay next to me, in my lap, or between my legs. But when I was sick she’d try to lay on my chest. She knew I was sick, or at least that something was wrong. She’d lay there, snuggle up against my neck, and purr loudly. Kitty only purred loudly in specific situations, and this was one of them. She would lay with me the whole time I was sick, just getting up to go to her litterbox or to get food.

Pre-Bed Playtime

For a couple of years, Kitty and I had a pre-bedtime routine. I would go up to brush my teeth and get ready for bed and she’d wait patiently for me to finish. Then we would get a good twenty minutes or so of play in before going to sleep.

We’d play on the bathroom rugs. We’d play in and around the bed. We’d play with bouncing foam balls and sliding plastic caps that came off of things in the bathroom. We’d play with feather sticks in the bed, sneaking around in, out, and under the folds of the comforter and sheets.

She’d like to chew on the feathers and would eventually pull all of them out and try to eat them. She’d also try to eat any little metal bells that were attached to the sticks. I’d have to remove them before we started to play with the stick to make sure she didn’t hurt another tooth.

While the feather part of the sticks was fun, she also enjoyed playing with the stick end. She enjoyed watching the stick get pushed along the comforter like it was burrowing along, pouncing on it when it got near, or feeling it burrow under her and then jumping up with a quick revarsal pounce to surprise it. Once she got tired of pouncing and trying to catch it with her paws, she’d just wait for it to get close, and skip ahead to just trying to bite at it.

After playing for a while, she would usually get tired and either fall asleep midplay, or transition into cleaning herself which she usually did before bed.

Voices

Kitty was full of emotions and she was good at vocalizing them, but she would rarely meow unsolicited.

If she was locked out of a room for a long time she would yell at you after you let her back in. You could hear the contempt and frustration in her voice. If she’s been hungry for a while and she’s been waiting for you to feed her and then you ask her if she’s hungry, she’ll give you a “yes you idiot!” meow. These were the extremes though. Normally she’d be very sweet if you asked her if she’s hungry, responding with gentle or even silent meow.

She would chitter at birds and squirrels that she saw on the porch. She would meow with an emphatic “Yes!” if you ever asked her if she wanted a snack.

Pinch Butt

I liked to pinch Kitty’s butt. I guess it was mostly her upper thigh, but it would regularly get a little pinch. She didn’t seem to mind and it was often the precursor to a responding shake-butt.

Chin Beg

If Kitty wanted your attention she would try to get it. She’d start by sitting in front of you, right to the side of where you were looking, and staring. As her patience waned, she would inch her way into your line of sight, so you couldn’t see what you were doing and were forced to deal with her.

If she was hungry she would not give up. If blocking your view didn’t work, she’d slowly get closer to your face so she could block more of your view. I’d have to move her until it was dinner time and she’d get grumpy.

If it was to play however, she may eventually give up. This could mean she goes off and tries to sleep, or, she would lie down with her chin on your forearm or hand. This was common when I was working on a computer and she was bored. She’d put her head on my arm or wrist, and press down on it like her head weighed ten pounds, sitting there pouting, looking something like this:

Wakeup Call

Kitty often went to bed before me. If we were downstairs, she’d usually fall asleep in the crack on the couch. When I was upstairs in bed I’d hear her calling out, after having woken up alone in the dark. After yelling to her, she’d show up a few minutes later and jump into bed with me to snuggle for the night.

I wish I had picked her up and brought her up to bed with me everytime instead of letting her sleep. But maybe it was better that she was able to get some rest.

Jump Attack

Kitty loved to play. If I started running from one end of the house the other, I could usually get her to start chasing me or running with me. As she got tired this would usually devlove into her starting to get sneaky and setting ambushes for me.

As I ran by her while she was down low with her eyes big and butt stuck up above her head, she would bounce up into the air with her two front paws stretched out like she was trying to give me a hug. She would very rarely actually get me, she’d just jump up near me like she was going to get me, but just pretend. She loved this game.

Eventually she’d get tired and stop getting me, instead just sititng there watching me run back and forth like an idiot.

The Banger

Kitty liked to give the doorstops a good whack, the type of doorstops that are a long spring with rubber stopper on the end. I call them bangers. She’d give the rubber piece good push, making it ring out with a big loud boing. After she made it boing, she’d leave it alone, just boinging the banger once.

Every once and a while I’d hear the boing ring out through the house, and I’d know what Kitty was up to.

Kitty Sauna

One of Kitty’s go to hang out spots was in front of the floor level heater vent in the bathroom, known as the Kitty Sauna. During the cold months, whenever the heat was on, she’d usually make her way to the Kitty Sauna and bask in the hot air blowing on her. Most of the time she’d plaster herself against the vent itself, to make sure she soaked up as much of the hot air as possible.

The air got very hot though, and I’m pretty sure she would let herself get too hot, to the point where she was a bit drowsy and distracted. But it made her so happy. If you went to say hello to her while she was Sauna’ing she’d immediately go upside down cat, curl into a half moon, and start purring.

I’m pretty sure this is a picture of her about to shakebutt to the vent.

Gremlin Face

Kitty’s fur puffed out in all directions, especially on her cheeks. Her head appeared to be around twice the size it actually was. Sometimes, when I would pet her, I would put one palm on each of her cheeks and brush all of her hair back, like she was trying to stick her head through a narrow tube.

If you paused mid pet, she’d have all her hair pulled back and you could see how tiny her head really was. Her skin would also be slightly stretched, so you could see the full shape of her face. I called this look, gremlin face, because she looked like a little gremlin monster.

She liked it. When she was happy and I did this she would push her head into the pet enthusiastically and make breathy grunts.

Are You Hungry?

When it was time for Kitty to be fed, I’d always ask her if she was hungry. She had a wide range of responses depending on how hungry she was. If she wasn’t hungry, you’d get indifference and no response. If she’d been sitting next to me for the past hour, getting between me and what I was doing to make sure she was seen, and staring at my mouth waiting to hear key words, you’d get an emphatic, loud, “Yes!” meow.

Before I changed her meal schedule, she’d always be super hungry first thing in the morning. After getting out of bed, I’d ask her if she was hungry while we were on our way down to the cat food. She would respond with the grumpiest, “Yes, you stupid idiot!” meows that I have ever heard her make.

After I started feeding her before bedtime, she stopped being so grumpy in the morning and stopped yelling at me.

Gag Reflex

I didn’t learn that cats should have their teeth brushed regularly until Kitty had been an adult for a while. I bought various toothbrushes. Some were little miniature versions of a human toothbrush, others were thimble-like, slipping over a finger. I got multiple kinds of kitty toothpaste, to see what she might like.

Kitty watched with passive interest while I assembled all of the teeth cleaning instruments, and worked some toothpaste out of the tube and onto a little orange brush. I picked her up, plopped her on my lap, and proceeded to try to gently open her mouth. The instant my finger touched the side of her mouth, she started gaging like I had shoved a giant piece of chicken down her throat. I hadn’t even got her mouth open, let alone got the toothbrush into her tiny mouth, and it was gag city.

Now, my fingers are regularly inside her sharp tooth lined mouth, getting chomped and chewed on while we are playing when she’s all riled up. I also rub her around the mouth while petting her. None of that made her gag. Sometimes when playing, she would accidentally pull my finger too far into her mouth as she greedily chomped on it, making herself gag just a little bit and spit my finger out.

This, this was not those kinds of little gags. The toothbrushing gags were the most overly dramatic, “I’m choking to death”, kind of gags. I still wonder if this was a carefully concocting plan to avoid any sort of teeth cleaning.

After many months of trying to clean her teeth, I got to the point where I could get a couple seconds of wiping down her teeth with a little toothpaste using just my bare finger. Just for a couple of seconds, and then she’d be back to gagging and struggling. It never got better than that.

Lost Kitty

Kitty sometimes disappears. She can usually be found in her closet, taking a nap or giving herself a bath. Other times she’s hiding in plain sight, behind a curtain, or on a shelf. One time, she could not be found at all.

After a few hours of no Kitty, the search around the house began. Checking her usual spots, she wasn’t in any of them. Calling out to her, which often produced a Kitty a few moments later, also didn’t work.

Eventually she was found in the pantry door where the cat food was stored. She had a habit of immediately sneaking into whatever you opened to go exploring. This time, it backfired on her.

Despite being in there for hours, being called to, and being walked by, she never made a sound. She just sat there in the dark, quietly, patiently, for hours, waiting for the door to open. Once it did, she didn’t stay quiet for very long. A long string of grumpy, accusatory, meows let us know how upset she was about the whole ordeal.

After that incident, I was always very careful to double check where she was when closing doors. There were a few more minor incidents of Kitty getting locked into things, but they were all brief, not hour long ordeals that produced an angry Kitty.

Cream Fiend

Kitty loved dairy, especially cream and ice cream. She would go into a bit of a frenzy once she saw that you had the stuff. Her technique was to park herself as close as possible to wherever it was coming from. She’d be staring into your bowl, with her nose up against it, while you were scooping some out. Then she would follow your spoon, staying as close as possible to it, all the way up to your mouth, staring at the cream the whole time. She wasn’t overly pushy, she just got as close as possible to it, and never take her eyes off of it. I, of couse, would always give her some.

I don’t know if she could smell it, or what, but whenever I got some out of the fridge or freezer, she would instantly appear. Basically running with excitement, she’d follow me to wherever I was going to eat it.

Backing Up

There was zero risk of Kitty running away, she loved being in her home. I never had her collar and tags on her to prevent knots. I think she got used to not having anything on her pretty quickly.

Kitty would freak out if she had something touching her and she couldn’t figure out what it was. For a while I tried to get her used to a harness so I could potentially bring her outside. She’d tolerate me putting it on, but when she saw that I took my hands away but it still felt like someone was touching her she’d get this look on her face, like this.

She’d then do one of two things: start backing up, or run off to her closet. Most of the time she’d start with backing up. I’m not sure what her reasoning was, maybe should thought she had got herself stuck in something so she should reverse her steps to get out. She would get kind of low, and just kind of slink backwards. One time with the harness, she slinked across the entire room, bumped into the wall, and then proceeded to slink along the wall until she got stuck in the corner.

One Christmas my dad got Kitty some costumes. I put the bunny one on her, she did not like it. I only kept it on her for a little while.

Kitty Rocks

Kitty always got the white and blue crystal kitty litter. Pieces would occasionally get stuck to her paws on the way out of the litter box and then get deposited in random locations throughout the house.

I called them kitty rocks because I would inevitably find where ever they were left by stepping on them with a bare foot and getting poked. Not as bad as a lego, but still a surprise.

Kitty would occasionally stink up her bathroom, and the adjoining rooms, with an extra stinky deposit. I always knew when this was coming because I would hear her spending an extra 5 minutes trying to bury it with as much kitty litter as possible. In these cases, I think her efforts were futile, but she definitely tried her hardest to help.

Kitty's Room

Kitty chose the big walk in closet in the master bedroom as her personal room. When she wanted alone time, that’s where you would find her. She also used it as a panic room. Whenever a thunderstorm or hailstorm started, she would run and hide in there.

I put an old antique wooden chair in there for her, it had a nice comfy pad, and underneath it, I put a comfy cat bed. She loved to take baths sitting on that chair, and occasionally took naps underneath when it was too bright in the house.

I’d always try to keep the closet door cracked so she’d have access whenever she wanted it. If she saw that the door was closed, she’d stand in front of it and stare at the door handle, sometimes stretching her paws towards it, until someone opened it for her. It usually wasn’t because she wanted to go into the closet, she was just very insistent about the door to her room always being open. After you opened it for her, most of the time she wouldn’t even go into the closet, she’d just continue on her way to whatever she was doing next.

I had Kitty buried with her chair cushion, since it was one of her favorite, and safest, spots.

Cheesy Paper

Kitty loved dairy, especially cheese and cream. I regularly got breakfast bagels with egg and American cheese, and I would always let her lick the extra cheese off of the paper that the bagel came in. She loved it. She’d keep coming back to the paper throughout the day for more licks, until the spots that had the cheese on them were licked completely through, leaving holes.

She loved it so much that she learned what the brown paper bag that the bagels came in sounded like. When I came through the front door with that bag, she’d run from where ever she was, and then intently watch, and follow me around, until I ate most of the bagel and then put the paper on the floor for her.

She never quite figured out that she had to keep a paw or two on the paper to prevent it from sliding around. She’d usually end up standing on it, but she’d often start out her pushing it around the floor as she tried to lick it.

Three Fangs

Kitty had not been feeling well for a day or say, just being kind of reserved and sleeping more than usual. While trying to figure out what was wrong with her, she yawned, and that’s when I noticed that one of her fangs was only half as long as the others. Sure enough, she had somehow managed to break a fang in half. We never found the other half of the fang in the house, nor did we ever find out how happened as we were both at work. It’s likely she tried to bit something metal, or perhaps fell on her face.

The other half of the tooth had to get removed, so she spent most of her life with just three fangs. On the side with only one fang, she resorted to using her molars to chomp on my fingers. Those things are sharp too.

Ribbons, Strings, & Things

Kitty loved to eat ribbons, paper streamers, threads, really anything that was long and potentially dangerous for her to ingest. When she saw such an item, she’d get obsessed with it until she was able to eat it or it was out of sight.

I tried very hard to keep these items out of her reach after I learned of her vice, but sometimes she’d consume a ribbon or small piece of yarn before I noticed what was going on. She was very sneaky and persistent. As a result, there were many times that I had to carefully examine poops to make sure she passed whatever it was.

One time she tried to kill herself by eating a thread with a needle attached to it. I was sewing on a patch onto a jacket. Like usual, kitty was hanging out with me, sitting next to me watching what I was doing. I hadn’t seen her try to eat thread before so I didn’t think she was watching intently with that on her mind. But sure enough, I put down the thread, turned my head slightly to pick something else up, then when I turned back she had about 3 inches of the thread already down her throat and was greedily gobbling up the rest of it. I’ll never forget the horror that came over me as I saw the needle on the end of the thread bobbing its way up to her mouth.

Luckly I caught her in time, but she was so fast. She would have had two feet of thread eating in five seconds, the little scamp. Anyway, she never got another chance to eat thread after that, as I never let her anywhere near it.

I Pooped!

Sometimes Kitty would get a little backed up. You could tell because she would get a little grumpy and often sit and stare in the general direction of her bathroom. Whenever I saw her like this, I’d try to get her to play. Briefly after starting to play she’d trot off to her litter box.

After she went, she’d run run out of the bathroom to the middle of the house, stand tall, and proclaim to the world: “I pooped!”. It was a unique vocalization that she never did for anything else, and it was clear that she was feeling better.

The funny part is that she wasn’t telling anyone in particular about it. Sometimes, I’d hear her signature “I pooped!” while I was in a different part of the house. Sure enough, I’d always find a happy cat with a litterbox that needed cleaning.

Bathroom Hugs

Most of the time, when I went to the bathroom, Kitty would also join me. If she had to go, she’d jump right in her litter box and start going with me. If she didn’t have to go though, she’d still hang out, often shake-butting me and staring at me while I went.

One time she was feeling extra saucy and jumped up onto the bathroom counter and then proceeded to jump onto my shoulder, landing there like she was a parrot. She then started giving me playful bites on my beard and rubbing up against me. After saying hi, she just settled in there for the long haul, purring and snuggling pressed up against my face with her paws crossed, while I finished my business.

Being Held

Kitty did not like being held. She was so sweet though. If you picked her up she would let you hold her, looking very forlorn, for maybe 20 seconds before starting to struggle. I think she was also always slightly afraid I was going to bring her to her cat carrier for a trip to the vet, especially when I picked her up and brought her downstairs.

Stairs Race

Kitty’s condo has two stories which are connected by two flights of stairs. Whenever Kitty went up or down the stairs on her own, she would slowly mosey on along, at a slow pace. In fact, you could usually hear when she was on her way down the stairs because she would be accompanied by “thump-thump” as she plopped onto each step on her way down.

If you were going up the stairs with her, her demeanor changed entirely. To her, going up the stairs with someone else, was a race, a race that she rarely lost. Once she saw you start going up, she’d bolt up the stairs as quick as possible and then start walking slowly at the top to let you catch up.

I don’t know why she did it, but she seemed to enjoy it, and would got some exercise out of it.

Snuggly Sleeping

Most nights, before falling asleep, Kitty would want to snuggle. If I was laying on my side with my head on my arm, she’d like to plop down right next to my face and put her head on my arm as well, becoming a snuggly little spoon. If I started to pet her and talk to her she would go upside down to let me rub her belly and she would purr, happily.

She’d stay like that as long as I petted and snuggled her. If I shifted just a little so she wasn’t pressed up against me as well, she’d stand up, turn in a circle a few times, and then plop back down on me, getting as close as possible.

Poor Kitty Passed Away

Poor kitty passed away today. I am glad she never has to suffer again. I hope she felt how cherished and loved she was in her final hours.

Her last act, undoubtly with much pain, was to get up, walk over to me, and lay in my lap.