Reflections on a Cat

Louie was a remarkably interesting cat. He had that gravelly voice like Satchmo and a great personality when he was feeling well. Sadly, it took me a long time to figure out what was wrong with him. His first years and his last two were pretty neat although he suffered from diabetes due to me letting him get overweight. There are many things about Louie to remember; 1. He used to carry a little stuffed bear around with him and when he was a kitten he would tilt over on his front legs with his hind legs in the air it was so much heavier than him. 2. He enjoyed a drip in our bathtub faucet at our other home and years after the drip had been fixed he would sit underneath the faucet expectantly. Even in our new home after 2006 when he got into the bathroom he would sit under the faucet and wait for the drip that never came showing cats have a long-term memory. 3. He meowed with, as I said, a gravel voice that sounded more like Bill the Cat of Bloomsbury fame than a typical house cat...

I miss Shakey so badly. I really depended expected him to always be there, at least for a couple more years. I feel like I failed him. He was such a friend, more than a pet.

Whitney was born in 1995. We named her after Whitney Houston, a beautiful African-American singer, popular at the time. She was such a petite little thing and so sweet.

Here Shakey is sitting by the carport door. He used to recognize my car as I got to the corner and sit there waiting on me, Beth said. But, when we decided we couldn't let the cats sleep with us we made them sleep in our downstairs family room at night. Shakey was strong enough to open the pocket door and it took me six months of piling stuff in front of it to try to thwart him before I broke down and attached a latch to it. The opening at the step where he is sitting in this picture is where the pocket door slides. He just moved everything I put there at night until I finally put in the latch. It was a real battle for awhile and he always won.

If you fast forward fifteen years or so, Shakey was my constant companion at work. He lay in a chair by me and comforted me often when I was stressed out. He was very in tune to my mood and was quite comfortable, most of the time, to just abide with me. I drew great strength and comfort from Shakey during some very trying times. I owe him a great deal. And he was a lot of fun to interact with. I will miss his headbutts and that calm paw on my leg when I was losing control of my temper.

Our cats, including Shakey, slept with us until Beth's allergies and their rambunctiousness at inconvenient hours put a stop to that. Here is Shakey moving into my warm place on the bed.

Most of my pictures of cats are when they are still because I didn't take pics as they raced around the house. But here was Shakey, very intelligent, curious, and playful at our house on Blooming Grove Road in Hanover, Pa. He was a very young cat and this wasn't long after we got him. I enjoyed his personality and winning ways. He was a great companion.

Shakey came to us less than a month after our daughter committed suicide. She had been with us only 17 years and that's about how long Shakey would stay. This was in the year 2000. My son, Jared, found him starving in a state park in Tennessee while he was camping. He devoured a can of tuna and slept in Jared's sleeping bag before he was taken home to Jared's apartment. He named him Shake-n-bake after his coloring, Shakey for short.