her senior years. We thought she’d live 18 or 20 years because she was such a healthy, kitten-like cat in her energy, playfulness and feistiness. She never had a day of illness in all of our time with her until her kidneys failed very quickly and fatally this week.
We miss her so very much but we’re also comforted that she didn’t suffer greatly or die a slow death.
Instead of seeing her grow old with us as we envisioned, this winter we will feel the extreme emptiness on cold downtown nights. We’ll miss her cuddling up with us to keep us warm. She literally slept above Jenn’s head on her own special pillow every night. Well, until about 4 a.m. when she would move to my side of the bed and do the Kitty Flop (think the Ric Flair, but for cats!) into my arms on the right side of my body. It was always after 4 a.m. but always before 5 a.m.
She would stand in my office and wait for breakfast each morning. She would sleep on the Kitty Sack all morning. She would sprawl out majestically in the sun all afternoon. Recently, she took to sleeping on Jenn’s desk all afternoon while she worked from home after her second leukemia survival.
There isn’t a blog I’ve written or a status I’ve made since 2012 from my laptop that Kitty hasn’t been a part of since her arrival into my life. If you read Purple Reign 2 – Faith Family and Football, she was very much the co-author in the middle of those 100 nights of writing about the 2013 Super Bowl Baltimore Ravens victory. She even endured The Peter Principles and my obsession with writing facts and truth. She watched baseball and football, hockey and The Food Network. She was a Sports Kitty.
We will miss every single thing about her and we will treasure her memory.
Her energy was boundless. She played with the laser pointer on our bed every night and loved sliding off the edge and onto the floor. We would howl with laughter and invite her back up for treats.
She made us laugh and smile every single day. Every minute spent with her was a minute well spent.
Love was, literally, all she knew!
Her beautiful, soft voice and meow melted us. We loved the sound of her voice.
Her unique softness and fur that felt more like an exotic chinchilla than anything feline I’d ever felt. Her rhythmic purr and the comfort that accompanied her welcoming little paws making bread on our shoulders when we held her were like medicine for the soul.
Her love helped Jenn survive cancer. Just the thought of her kept Jenn alive at very, very dark moments.
Kitty loved gravy. She begged for treats. We called them Kitty Crack. She ate them from the palm of my hands on her back two paws. She lunged at me whenever I’d approach her to greet me first. She gazed at me every morning curled up in a little upside down ball on the living room floor as I made fresh coffee. She loved banging her tail against our headboard and making noise. She loved banging her tail along our doors and furniture because she loved the sound of it.
She snuck into the hallway to be snoopy. She begged to get up high into our closets so she could sit on the edge and admire us getting ready for our day.
She brought us comfort, companionship and absolute joy.
She was truly a miracle in our lives. She wasn’t a one in a million cat but a once in a lifetime friend.
My wife would always tell me that on nights when I wasn’t home, she would wait for me and run to the door the second she heard the elevator. She was always waiting at the door with a friendly hello “meow” and an insatiable appetite for affection, attention and care.
My biggest life lesson from her came not just from her love but from her complete and total trust in us. I’m pretty sure she thought we were just big cats. Jenn and I would roll around on the floor with her anytime and play with her toy mice. Her comfort level with us was truly incredible.
When we adopted her, she’d been in a cage for six weeks with no one to take her home and love her.
The first month she kept her distance. The second month, she would climb into our bed and would only stay at Jenn’s feet. The sixth month, she finally melted into Jenn’s lap and became the “lap kitty” that my wife so desperately desired. After a year, she would finally start coming to my side of the bed.
She was initially trusting and cool but it took a long time and a lot of love to earn her complete trust. She literally got better every day of her life. She got closer to us every single day of her life. We always marveled at that and discussed it.
I would always tell my wife: “I’ve never felt more love for or from any creature – human or otherwise – than what I feel from Kitty.” She loved me sooooo much.
Her love of me was a gift given to me, and a love like no other. I owe Jenn an incredible debt of gratitude for bringing this transcendent creature of unconditional love into my life. It was a blessing that I cannot even put into words.
One of my best pals Scott is a dog lover and always told me that if I ever had a pet, I’d not only never regret it but that it would bring me a joy and inner peace that I’d never known. He was right. He told me that if I ever had a pet that
