WARNING: The video that I made to accompany this blog post is very “cat-centric”, naturally, and may be something that a small child would enjoy sitting in the lap of a grandparent. This little article was started and nearly complete in the spring of 2023 and has been sitting in draft mode ever since. I could have given this video more refinement, but today is the day to clear it off my workspace and deliver the message. Enjoy.
The smallest living hearts make the deepest wounds.
Just a whirly flutter of an existence within a lithe fur coat
and a tail that twitches with delight.
Quick, sweet & simple.
A little story about how death is not a loss of love.
Life on a farm will teach you lessons about how to care, nurture, and protect, as well as lessons about the cycles of growth and decay, birth and death. Sometimes during that natural cycle, an unexpected crisis can withdraw life before it has reached maturity. These unforeseen moments are especially upsetting, no matter how many times I’ve experienced “the loss”.
I’ve delighted in the friendship of many dogs and cats as family pets during my life. They all remain close to me in spirit as I hold the memories of our good times together. In that way, the love I feel for them doesn’t die or get lost, and I don’t get stuck in the grieving process.
The Squirrel
Squirrely the Ocelot was an exceptionally talented, athletic cat who adored our family dog, a motherly black lab who had recently been through a tragic loss of her two friends. Our other two dogs passed away last year. One was a wise elder Anatolian Shepherd and the other one was an omnivorous foraging dingo who unfortunately ate something poisonous. Squirrely was so enamored with Maizy that they would often be found cuddled up in front of the fire, grooming each other’s faces, or hanging out on the lawn in the shade.
Complementary to her love for Maisy, Squirrely caught on to the popular dog game of playing fetch, but with hair ties and rubber bands. Really, I think she wanted to be a dog. I’ve found this to be true with other cats who are fond of the dog pack energy, going for walks, and playing puppy games.
She could play a solo tennis match by tossing a toy mouse in the air, swat it across the room, catch it, and then serve it again. I called her my Whirly Bird.
One of her other unique talents was being stretchy. You could hold her in your arms like a baby and she would relax into a full back bend with all her claws and tail extended.
Whenever she greeted you, she would rattle and twitch her tail.
She was a fierce shredder. Place the cat in a box with a roll of toilet paper and it will be turned to pulp in mere seconds.
If you open a plastic grocery bag and place it on the floor, she launches herself inside of it like a charging bull and then proceeds to roll around and wrap herself up with it.
Her keen sense of hearing recognizes the sound of a tuna can hitting the countertop from the other side of our property.
She could tunnel and burrow herself into any small opening.
If you’re doing laundry, she’s in the clothes.
If you’re making the bed, she’s in the blankets.
If you’re doing yard work, she follows you around outside.
It’s that kind of cat who was so tuned in to my habits, she was sure to be waiting near the bathroom door whenever I walked out.
On top of all that, she had a bum leg. During her first few months as a kitten, she broke her leg. Then after healing from that, she broke it again and dislocated her knee cap. The vet’s I consulted wanted to amputate it, and I just couldn’t accept that was the only answer. So, we kept her in comfortable confinement till it got better. It did, eventually, but her leg was never the same.
She could still get around and do her acrobatics, but I always knew that it was a potential hindrance to her ability to escape from predators. Although I don’t know for sure what happened to her, there is a probability that she may have been the victim of a dog attack.
Nothing will bring her back to us in the form she was in, but she is not lost. I believe that your family pets are familiar spirits who return to us in new ways. We had a black and white cat whom we were especially fond of and I’ve always said that he’ll come back to us as a black and white cat, and I’ll know it’s him because he’ll just show up one day out of the blue. Well, that’s exactly what happened. My friend who was moving out of town brought him over and dropped him off without even needing to consult me. He just knew where he was meant to be.
Honor your loved ones and pay respect to their legacy, that’s how we keep them close.
North Gate Mystic 