Splatcat

When I was a kid we got a kitten from some friends of ours. At first my Mom thought it was a girl. Her rationale for letting us talk her into getting yet another cat was she figured it could be a replacement for our oldest female at the time. Little Cat was probably 14 or 15 years old so we thought she wouldn't last that much longer.

As it turned out the kitten was a male and one of our young males (Spider was about 3 years old) died unexpectedly a few months after we acquired the new kitten, Little Guy. Little Cat lived till she was 19 years old.

I always felt like Little Guy came to us because Spider was going to die soon.

It seems things have worked out in a similar way with me and cats again.

New Cat came to us about a month and a half ago. Splatcat died a few hours ago. She had been ill for the past few weeks. We hoped she would pull through, but tonight she came out of our closet and we could tell she wasn't going to last the night.

H got to sit and pet her for several hours. I also got some good time with her in between keeping C and S from getting too restless. We all got a chance to say our goodbyes and Splatcat got to be with family right before the end. She was 14 years old.

We buried her under M's apricot tree.

Random Splat memories

C just reminded me that I gave him Splatcat when he was a baby. He was so enthralled with her. He always seemed to prefer cats over dogs, and until last October Splatcat was the only cat in the house. He loved her so much I couldn't resist letting her be his. He remembered better than I did. C was almost always gentle with her, so she wasn't afraid of him. One of her favorite things to do was perch on a human while they were in bed, and purr. She was always very careful to only step on a person if they were covered with clothing or a blanket. C often wanted in on the fun and would find a blanket to cover up with so Splatcat would lay on him, too.

When H was a bitty baby and I would walk with her at night to calm her, Splatcat would follow me from room to room. She always made sure I had company even during the wee hours of the morning. She would wait for me on the bathroom rug while I took a shower, then drink from the shower floor when I was done. Sometimes at night she would drink water out of my water glass.

She loved being pet while eating, and would often ask me to pet her while I was on the potty, so I could get her motor running, then once she was purring strongly she would dash off to eat (this probably started because we kept the cat food in our bathroom at the old house).

She was good about letting us sleep in. If we were stirring but not ready to get up, we could just tell her we weren't awake yet and she would leave us alone so we could go back to sleep.

She loved tuna juice and would pester me till I gave her some whenever I opened a can of tuna.

Even though I was her favorite, she would make sure to greet everyone in the morning. She used to act like she missed us so desperately while we were sleeping.

Goodbye Splatcat. You were a great cat. Thank you for spending the last 13 and a half years with me.