A Tribute to Two Cats
Cats and humans may have been living together for as long as 10,000 years. In 2004, researchers found the remains of a cat and a human buried together in a 9,500 year-old gravesite in Cyprus.
By that timescale, the dozen years my family and our two cats lived together are microscopic, almost undetectable. But those twelve and a half years were, as it turned out, feline lifetimes. Our cats died this month, two weeks apart, and today I’m finding it hard to remember life before Pudding and Leia.
Born in an East Dallas warehouse in the relentless heat of a Texas summer, the kittens were taken in by a rescuer who cared for them, along with two other feral litters, until they were old enough to be adopted. We were the lucky ones who took them home.
To the uninitiated, the cats resembled each other,
Leia on the left, Pudding on right with half-moustache.
but they couldn’t have been more different.
Pudding was a big lug of a cat, sweet-tempered and laid-back, the kind of guy you might find in the corner bar, buying a pitcher of beer for his buds.
Big lug.
All his life, Pudding adored my son, hustling to the door when he got home from school and hanging out in his room, like a pal.
Leia, on the other hand, was the runt. Until her last years, she spent an inordinate amount of time hiding in closets, avoiding contact with people. Except for me. Leia was crazy about me. Head over heels. Smitten. Gaga. She’d gaze at me as I worked with a slightly demented intensity, like an over-needy lover desperate for an opening.
I loved her dearly, but I avoided looking in her direction, since even inadvertent eye contact could unleash a feline litany of demands, reproaches and yearnings. One night, as my husband tried to read, my son filmed Leia and me.
The apartment has grown suddenly larger with the loss of these two creatures. Small in body, and large in spirit, they gave us joy. We miss them.
Rest in peace, Pudding and Leia.
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Tags: cat talks, cats, cats curled together, i miss my cats, mourning for cats, pet cats, video of cat talking to owner
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March 1, 2012 at 11:39 am
Just had to put my beloved cat down two weeks ago and it’s awful the hole she left here. I have two other cats and two dogs but she was her own character. I love your description of him buying beers. They do have personalities, don’t they?
February 28, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Oh, I’m so sorry! It hurts so much to lose them and it definitely does leave a big hole in your life when they leave us. As a fellow cat-lover, I’m glad these two beauties were lucky enough to have found their way to you, from such a rough beginning. How wonderful they were able to have a good, loving home. They were lucky to have you and you to have them, I’m sure.
February 29, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Thank you Aimee. I miss both, but am happy to have had them in my life. I just checked out your blog and read about the feral cat colony you inherited when you moved into your apartment. What a great post. You certainly make a strong case for Trap-Neuter-Release – and for adoption, when possible. Those cats are also very lucky to be so well cared for. In some areas, feral cats have a devastating effect on local and migrating wildlife, so it’s a complex issue (ah, aren’t they all?). In the concrete jungle, outside the parks, perhaps the situation is different. I recently researched & wrote about feral cats, after encountering them repeatedly throughout the city – Randall’s Island, Riverside Park, Morningside Park, East Harlem, East Village, etc. Glad you found Out Walking the Dog, and I look forward to reading more about your city garden.
February 26, 2012 at 8:52 pm
It’s amazing how these little beings adapt to is and make adapting to them so seamless that we do not realize how essential they became until they have passed on. They needed each other in this world and the next and so they are gone. I write through eyes blurred with tears for you.
Cherish the memories they have left you
February 26, 2012 at 12:37 pm
What a lovely tribute Melissa. Your video of Leia and that top photo of Pudding with a snaggle tooth brought a smile to my face. (I love that you named your boy Pudding!) Thank you for sharing your tender memories of your furry loved ones with us. I really like how John stated it – how the “motion of their bodies in our peripheral vision is a part of being home.” So true. And how we miss that when they’re gone!
February 26, 2012 at 11:11 am
I’m so sorry for your loss, Melissa. Thanks for sharing the video and photos – they all made me smile, as did your descriptions. They seem to have enjoyed a very good life with you.
February 26, 2012 at 7:23 am
Sorry to hear this! They were obviously delightful, and much loved, cats. My sympathies… been there too…
February 26, 2012 at 11:31 am
I appreciate your thoughts, Vlad.
February 26, 2012 at 7:13 am
So sorry for your loss!
Those little bundles of fur can generate an emotional presence all out of proportion to their size. And when they go away, the silence is bigger still…
But they live on in our hearts.
Thanks for sharing this.
I hope the time will come when new cats find you–nothing ever replaces a cat, but there’s an almost infinite variety of feline joy.
Thinking of you.
February 26, 2012 at 11:31 am
Thank you so much for your kind words, Johna. Not planning on new cats – but you never know. Pouring love into the dog – always an animal of some kind in my life!
February 26, 2012 at 12:40 am
beautiful
February 26, 2012 at 11:26 am
yes, they were. beautiful.
February 26, 2012 at 12:29 am
Hi Melissa, I am sorry for your loss….they seemed like real characters…a wonderful tribute with so much love….with love, Margot
February 26, 2012 at 11:26 am
Thanks, Margot – sorry you never got to meet the cats.
February 25, 2012 at 9:59 pm
We lost our gray tabby about a year ago. He had been with us for 13 years. These guys certainly have a knack for finding their way into your heart. So sorry to hear about your loss.
February 26, 2012 at 11:25 am
Thanks, CGJ. Sorry about your tabby, too.
February 25, 2012 at 2:22 pm
What a marvelous post! You gave us those two characters–
and their love for one another as well as the family–rather than
just your feelings for them. Thanks for the terrific photos, as well
as the hilarious celebration of Leila the Talker.
February 26, 2012 at 11:15 am
Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed the video. As you can see, one of the gifts the cats gave us was a tremendous amount of laughter.
February 25, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Lovely tribute, Melissa. Your Pudding looked very much like our Luigi, with the same grey “toupee.” If only Luigi were a big lug like Pudding instead of the wall-climbing teenage rascal he is right now. Yes, losing the company of a cat is so profound. You suddenly realize how much the motion of their bodies in your peripheral vision was a part of “being home.” Like little moons orbiting. Happy you got to belong to each other for many years.
February 26, 2012 at 11:14 am
You’ve captured it beautifully, John – little moons orbiting. I agree about the toupee – I always thought Pudding had gotten a really cheap rug, like one of those minor mobsters in a Scorcese movie. And don’t worry: Luigi will quit climbing the walls one day, and instead you’ll find him in the corner bar buying beers for the gang, just like Pudding. I hope that will be an improvement.
February 25, 2012 at 1:39 pm
I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s one of the hardest things to lose beloved cats. The photos and video are a lovely tribute
February 26, 2012 at 11:11 am
I know from your own posts that you are a cat lover, Tricia, looking out for Coney Island kittens. It is hard – but writing about them – and laughing again at their quirks – helps immensely.
February 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Thanks for letting us see what life was like on the inside with this very moving tribute. That last picture of Pudding and Leia is how I’ll always remember them—intertwined, together, in their little basket.
February 26, 2012 at 11:09 am
I do love thinking of them curled up together in their basket.
February 25, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Beautiful photos and wonderful memories. You were lucky to have lived and loved these two.
February 26, 2012 at 11:09 am
Thanks, Bill.
February 25, 2012 at 12:15 pm
i’m so sorry for your loss! how bonded they must have been to go together. they are so sweet. happy i got to meet one of them guess it must have been pudding. thank you for sharing the pics and hilarious video.
February 26, 2012 at 11:08 am
Thanks, Judy – it was striking that they died within 2 weeks of each other of unrelated illnesses, one chronic, the other sudden.
February 25, 2012 at 10:47 am
So sorry for your losses.
February 25, 2012 at 10:52 am
Thanks so much.
February 25, 2012 at 10:30 am
Wonderful post Melissa, how you must miss those two – do I ever know about how suddenly spaces enlarge when one or more members are missing. RIP Pudding and Leia. And deep and sincere sympathy to you all – their family. Great photos of two lucky and delightful cats.
Loved the video – too funny!
February 25, 2012 at 10:52 am
Thank you, Barbara. Writing the post and making the little video reminded me to think more of the pleasure and humor of living with the cats rather than just the sadness of losing them.