Tessie-cat passed away sometime last night. She had been part of our family for almost 19 years. She was being treated for chronic kidney failure, and we expected her condition to irreversibly deteriorate within the next several years. Meanwhile, we all gave her lots of attention in her last months.

In early August, while the girls were at camp, I spent a lot of uninterrupted time with Tessie-cat. At almost-19 years, she’s even older (in cat years) than I am. I call her “my geriatric cat,” which is what she is. All she did for the whole week was to sit on the back on the couch, in her favorite spot, and sleep, taking brief breaks to eat or pee or poop or remind me that she depends on me for everything, including attention. After so many years, when it comes to our relationship, she’s really still just a kitten.

And during this time we had to spend together, a truth acutely implanted itself on my consciousness, that no relationship lasts forever, because all creatures die, for one reason or another, and probably far too soon. My relationship with Tessie, I thought, will eventually end as well, and probably not too many years hence.

A thought like that really puts in perspective how annoyed I get at her when she begs and begs and begs for attention, at the most inconvenient opportunities.

When a Cat Takes Over Your Life

I apologize for being absent this week. We’ve had a small family drama… involving our cat.

If you subscribe to my Facebook profile, you know that Tessie-cat got sick and then started acting seriously weird. As I’ve mentioned before, Tessie is old, quite old, almost 19 years old. On top of that, we’ve been behind in her vet appointments (as well as our dental appointments). So we kinda freaked out.

Two vet visits and $440 later— Didn’t see that coming. We’ve discovered that her kidneys are beginning to fail, a common dysfunction in geriatric cats. This explains all of her symptoms, but it means she’s now on a special diet. And we get to start that diet off by injecting her with fluid twice a day for a week and a half, which she doesn’t seem to be enjoying too much. (I think the experience traumatizes me more than it does her, though.)

I do have a post in the incubator about old friends and how short life is. That post is near the top of my list. I hope to publish it next week. [UPDATE: Here it is!]

... and SQL Stuff

When my Beloved and I went over to our friends’ apartment to pick up Tessie-cat (then only a Tessie-kitten) in early 1994, we found her cowering behind a couch.

Now, over 18 years later, she still loves couches, but now mostly as a place to sleep, all day, every day. Those of us who are wise in our old age all learn to chill out.

My friend, Dave—not his real name, but the same “Dave” as in the Love-Idiot book— Dave and his bride had brought home a pair of 2½-month-old kittens, both beautiful, jet-black sisters. One they adopted and named Nikki. The other we adopted, and we named her Tessie.

Proof that God has a sense of humor is that he created cats.

We share our apartment with a sleek, black cat, whom we call “Tessie,” a high-strung Burmese (or something thereabouts). I call her my Spooky Cat, because she has always been terrified of any living creature, and a few dead ones.

When we went to pick her up, to take her home, she was hiding behind the couch. Her sister Nicki, just as sleek and just as black, was hobnobbing it up with everyone in the kitchen. My friend Dave and I—not his real name, but the same “Dave” that I mention in the Love-Idiot book—we had to move the couch to get at her, all the while screaming at her to get her ass up here, because we had a fricassee going and nothing to put in it.

No, seriously, we were as quiet and gentle as we could be. But as cats are wont to do, she tried to run away. Fortunately, I was smarter than she was, she being just a kitten and I being an old man in my 20-somethings. So I grabbed her, at which point she attempted to scratch my eyes out.