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| Isis |
I love the idea of pet pictures on your blog for August, so attachinga picture of one of my four cats, my beautiful Isis, who was killed by a car a few weeks ago.
She was a very independent cat, a former stray and because of that a very
successful hunter. I first met her six years ago when I stayed with a friend
who looks after the stray cats around her house. (I live in Spain;
unfortunately there are a lot of stray cats here) I sat down on the sofa and
shortly after, Isis jumped on my lap and settled down. My friend said she was
surprised because Isis didn't really like people that much, but from that
moment on, Isis slept on my bed and was waiting for me every time we came home
to my friend's house. She continued doing that when I adopted her. Every afternoon
she'd be waiting for me to come home from work to greet me with a special,
excited meow, but as soon as greetings were over, she'd go back to her
delicate, reserved self and act like a real goddess. Everything was on her
terms. She was an incredible cat.
32 comments:
What a beautiful cat. I am so sorry she is no longer with you. She reminds me of one of our cats, Princess, also a tri-color. My husband said Princess seemed to have some sort of 6th sense when I would be on my way home (from shopping or whatever), because she would get in the dining room window a few minutes before I pulled into the driveway and watch for me.
Awww, what a pretty kitty!! And so sad about her passing. :( Our oldest cat, Fleur de la Purr, has similar markings, and is also quite the princess (as befits her name). She hates being picked up, and wants everything on her own terms. But she can be friendly, and my SecondBorn adores her.
It's a special thing when a cat like that chooses you. She was really gorgeous and sounds like she had an amazing personality.
Calicos have such snuzzle-able coats. A lovely friend you have lost; I am so sorry to hear it.
Colin, Fleur de la Purr is such a great name.
What a lovely girl... My heart goes out to you over her loss.
What fun color-markings on an elegant lady. And to be chosen by Isis to be her friend. That is special. So sorry for your loss.
What a beautiful feline. Cats are truly interesting critters, so particular. Very cool to be chosen by one. So sad that Isis has moved on.
She is very beautiful and I love the personality. Sorry to hear of her passing :( It seems you shared some wonderful memories though!
Aw, Isis sounds fantastic.
My first cat, Mischief, was a tortoiseshell. She lived with my sister for a while when I was in university and she knew the sound of my sister's car when it turned on to the street. She'd always be waiting at the door for her, even if I was there at the time.
My current two cats are usually at the door when we get home, and the male has a specific meow for when he sees my husband walk up the driveway. I call him my distant early warning system.
I actually felt my heart constrict when I read of her passing. ooof!
Love the Grouch stache though. What a beauty. Stay strong and remember she's up there hunting. Most likely befriending others.
Since my first cat (Poinciana) and my second (current)cat (Brigada) chose to live with me, I can relate to your life with Isis.
What a beauty! So sorry to hear of her passing. I had a stray like that once, and I still miss her. They are always a part of us.
What a gorgeous cat - it's very sad to know she's gone. As frenchsojurn commented, she had a great mustache, and her coloring was beautiful.
I looked up the word mustache in Spanish, and it said "bigote." That seems unfortunately close to the English word bigot. Also, one online dictionary I checked states that "moustache" is the proper spelling in America and another dictionary states that the correct spelling here is "mustache." Any thoughts out there?
Here I come flouncing onto the playground to declare this. I bet the moustache vs mustache spelling is the case of "un-Americanized" and "Americanized." As in catalogue and catalog. Or, honour vs honor, or humour/humor, and on and on.
I'm too lazy to look it up and see if I was right. Maybe not lazy - more like about to have a heat stroke waiting to run at 11:00 = end the run with fuzzy brains.
Ooooh, Isis. What a sad story. I had a cat like this (pre-Jax days). A big orange tabby named...Garfield. (thank the kids) He would wait for me too, and would come into eat at night, and then sleep, and want to go out first thing in the mornings. He stayed out all day while I worked. I would come home and he'd be waiting on the steps. At that time in my life I shouldn't have had a pet. Things were too erratic. We sort of moved for a year, but I kept paying rent - just in case we needed to come back. You can read between the lines. I picture Garfield coming home to wait, and nobody showing up. Then, we did come home and we stayed. And he came in at night and he ate and slept - like always. Then, one day he didn't ...and I searched and searched. I found him. He too was gone.
I still think of him often.
Donna: We have a couple of outdoor cats, and one of our dilemmas at the moment is what to do with them when we move. We inherited them with our current house. The oldest of the two was around before we moved in nearly 14 years ago. So she's really old (but still full of life). On the one hand, we don't want them to be left stranded (they've got used to us). But on the other, that's their home. They are country cats, and, unless we move to another rural location, I'm not sure if they would miss the open fields more than us. I guess we'll cross that bridge once we've found our new home.
Colin That is a dilemma. I'm not sure what's the best option - 14 years is a long time and I'm sure they've become attached more than you think. On the one hand if you take them, they might run off b/c they aren't used to the place - yet, all of you would be there, and they would know that. And if you put their food out, and have things sort of the way it was...IDK, they might be just fine.
Cat owners who've solved these sorts of problems might help better than me. Cats are funny critters. A move can traumatize them and they might never be the same again. Jax was The Perfect Cat - until we adopted "Bitty Kitty." And then we moved. And then he started using the house as his litter box. Not good.
What a beautiful girl. I'm so sorry for your loss. Posting her picture here and telling us about her is a great way to remember her.
When it comes to spellings, this is where it's important to choose a dictionary and style guide to work with. Not all dictionaries agree, and not all style guides agree. It's good to have one to turn to whenever there's a choice, so you can be consistent in your decision. That said, when it comes to being published, I'm sure the publishing houses have their own style and spelling choices.
So sorry to hear about your loss. To paraphrase Ollivander 'The cat chooses its person'. Isis sounds like she was a wonderful companion.
We used to have a cat (a black and white) who had the half-moustache Isis seems to sport. We called it her 'half-stache'.
When my fiancé and I were still just boyfriend-girlfriend and in our after-college apartment, there was a BIG white stray cat in the area. Black tail, one black ear, a couple splotches on his back. We called him Rorschach (I have a psychology degree, and we both liked Watchmen, okay?) though apparently the college girls who'd abandoned him when they moved away had named him Oreo. At least they'd gotten him neutered?
But Rorschach was a gregarious and charming cat. The library was a block away from that apartment, and he'd walk me to the corner where I crossed a busy street to get to work, and as I was walking home, I could chirp for him and he would come running and meowing and walk me home as well. He'd come up the front walk meowing, and hang out with us on the porch. He let me clean up him after he got in a fight with a huge groundhog, purring (which could have been stress purring) and actively cuddling.
When winter came, it got COLD. And I brought him inside for the night. But, the lease said no pets and our landpeople were...strict and erratic. So I cajoled my coworkers and he went to one house first, where they discovered he makes a noise like a lion when he fights with other male cats, which he very much wanted to do. And he went to another house, which had only female cats, where he settled in to their study and cuddled. But wouldn't use the litter box. He held it for two days and they let him out. He recrossed town and walked me to work again.
He eventually just...stopped coming around. And I feel very guilty about that, but hope maybe somebody took him in and kept him in, and he was their cat from then on.
(oh, and my fiancé is allergic to cats, somehow left out that part.)
What a beautiful cat. I'm so sorry you lost such a loyal friend. Hugs.
I have friends with three cats, one of which is an outdoor cat who would eat dinner at their house and use their guest room (literally). They just moved to the other side of the city and they're not sure how Infinity will adjust.
What a lovely cat. I'm so sorry to hear of Isis's passing, but I'm glad she had such a happy home with you and gave you joy.
As far as mustache vs. moustache, apparently the spellcheck program here likes the former. I do feel like I've seen it more often in modern American literature. I've often wondered by Hercule Poirot gets to preen over his "moustaches" while Tom Selleck only gets one mustache. I'm guessing we lost the plural in translation.
Which goes into the whole question on why it's a pair of pants but only one shirt, but that's a discussion for another day.
I'm partial to boy cats myself (I've got 4) but there's something special about calicos. And Isis certainly was a beautiful calico.
On the topic of moustaches, my aunt used to have a black and white tuxedo cat with a fabulous white moustache just below his black nose. All he needed was a little top hat to be the picture of style.
Thanks everyone for your comments and sympathy. It's good to know more people know of her because of the blog. She deserves it :-) Thanks, Janet.
I prefer the spelling "moustache." It feels more elegant, more satisfying, more like you should be wearing a doublet and breeches and a drooping feather in your hat.
There's just something about the "muh" in "mustache" that sounds lazy and draggy, but maybe it's more of a Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed and Confused" kind of spelling.
What a lovely kitty! I am so sorry to hear that she is no more. I am very partial to calicos and torties, despite that (or because) they all seem to have such attitude. (Or tortitude, as the director of an animal shelter around here calls it)
Mehitabel is a calico so I know them well.
Colin, that is a real dilemma. I really can't recommend just leaving them to their fate. If you can't take them with you, or find a neighbor that wants to sign on to their care, please take them to your local animal shelter. Older cats are harder, but not impossible to place. to just abandon them would be too awful.
My condolences on your loss. She was a lovely girl. All of our cats for twenty five or so years have been reformed ferals. Yes those cats you see around are feral. They are not strays and they are not usually your neighbor's cats.
It is sometimes amazing when a feral cats decides it wants to be your friend. We currently have three house cats and our yard is a safe place for a half of a dozen others.
I am kind of short on time because I'm helping some friends with a relief effort but I have two PSAs.
If there are feral cats in your neighbor hood see if your local equivalent to the humane society has a feral cat program. That program might be listed as THVR for trap, neuter, vaccinate and release. It is usually fifteen to twenty bucks per animal but it is worth it for two reasons. Cats be hard on an ecosystem. They hunt everything.
The other problem is inbreeding. Two of the cats we had a few years ago had problems because of that. One's liver failed and the other got mouth cancer.
PSA 2: If you can afford to please put a few bucks in a hat for Louisiana. I think the current problem might be bigger than Katrina was. Yes, I saw both of them. This one covers just so much area it boggles the mind.
Isis, goddess of the sky and nature. What beautiful colouring she had. I'm so sorry for your loss, Andrea. I don't think I could ever have an outdoor cat, wimp that I am. I worry too much as it is, what with my two (adult) kids running around loose in the world.
Thanks for sharing her pic and your memories of her with us. It's also nice to know we have a friend in Spain!
So sorry to hear about Isis. What an incredible connection you two had.
Donna, I'm just sitting here sipping a glass of rosé in the fog and it hit me: why is Donna running at 11:00 am in 90 million degree heat? No!!!!! Isn't there a swimming pool nearby? Are you in a running club or on a running team? Or do you have a masochistic running partner?
What a lovely cat. If her black ear markings were longer to her eye, she'd qualify as a Hitler cat. (Sorry. Didn't mean to shout fuhrer in a crowded theatre.)
Sorry for her loss.
Several months ago I had a beautiful "stray" who lived on our porch. She got hit by a car. Most of her survived. Alas, her hind leg was too broken and had to be amputated. Since she was the Outside Cat, we couldn't keep her, because Inside Cat, who is not as nice or lovely as Outside Cat, would not have tolerated her while she healed. (Sometimes I resent Inside Cat for this.)
So we surrendered Outside Cat to the vet, who fixed her up and then gave her to the local cat haven. We don't know for sure, but rumour has it she found a loving home, because temperamentally, she's such a sweetie.
I'm rather fond of cats.
To be chosen by a cat is a very great honor. Beautiful picture of Isis.
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