Our Last Home

We had to move a couple of more times, but this last place was our own. So, I finally got my wish with her. It is the last place I remember living at. This was also the place in which Isis came to live with us. My girl was working a regular job outside of our home again too.

I was glad when we could stay in the same place for years. This was a comfort after all the moving around we did. I just hope my girl doesn’t have to keep moving when she doesn’t like it so well. Having a safe and stable home is a wonderful thing to have. It’s the place you go to when you need to hide from the world.

That’s how I feel about it. I still believe that home is a place you can come back to time and time again. Adventures can be good from time to time, but a safe place to hide and be loved is a must in this crazy world. Home is not just for cats, but also everyone who needs one. So I can’t complain when this was the last place we lived in together.

It was safe. It was stable. It was home. It had a great view. I could keep an eye out on humans who came and went on the street and the sidewalk. I could look down on them. I know Spot loved the view too. He watched lots of humans everyday. We watched my girl too.

It was clear that she was a crazy cat lady who couldn’t say no to us because we are cats. It’s as simple as that. I wasn’t alone at this time of my life. I was a senior cat and I could enjoy my naps and meditation. My girl gave me all the love and attention I needed whenever I asked for it.

I could not ask for more from the home she gave us. By this time I had become a quiet cat. I was so quiet that my girl’s mother couldn’t believe it. She just didn’t understand. She thought I was still a loud whiny cat. Well, my girl understood me so well that I didn’t have to ask her for much of anything.

I could enjoy my senior years without worry. I was content and relaxed. I was surrounded by my family in our last home we shared together. We were happy. All of us. I was aging and my girl could see some signs of it. She would look at my coat and see some white hairs speckled throughout my black hair. She’d ask me if I was getting old on her. I just looked at her and said nothing. I’d close my eyes and go to sleep seeing her smile at me.

I knew she was just teasing. She was making an observation. She does the same thing to herself and it doesn’t bother her to see fine lines forming around her eyes. If she stares at her silvery hairs streaked in her French black hair for too long, she laughs. She now wears lined bifocals. She’s not ashamed. She knows she is getting older. I doubt she will care as long as she doesn’t get sick.

But when we age and get sick on top of it, it’s no fun, as I will discuss in the last chapter. So, I hope my girl continues to enjoy good health that gets better not worse.

September 1, 2020 0

New Apartment—Moving Again

After some time, my girl was able to get another apartment for the three of us. We were there for a time. Moving wasn’t fun, but after all our things were in and we were there, things got better fast. There was another sleeping alcove. She put up a curtain to make it dark and cozy just as before. Spot and I used to cuddle and sleep on her bed. It didn’t matter if she was there or not.

It was a noisy place. Much too noisy. Spot and I thought there would be strangers coming into the apartment. But there weren’t. It was just us. I’m glad it was just us. Strangers bother me. I don’t know if I can trust them. My girl understands that. She managed to get some good pictures of me and of Spot in this place.

We could hear our next door neighbors. There was at least one cat who meowed loudly enough to rival my vocal prowess. My girl thought we would end up talking to each other. But being cats knowing we lived on the opposite side of the wall and in a different apartment, we ignored each other.

The walls were too thin there. We could hear the neighbors watching tv. It wasn’t good for my girl. She had to go to bed earlier than they did and so she had a hard time falling asleep while they were watching tv. I did what I could for her, but it wasn’t very much.

But we didn’t stay here forever. I don’t know why. My girl never told us why. She just packed up our things and got us ready. We have moved too many times during our time together. I still don’t know why. My girl didn’t like it anymore than we did. I could tell by the way she was acting.

I just hope she will be okay sooner or later. I get that sometimes she has to work outside of our home, wherever it may be, and I miss her when she’s gone. But she does come home and pays attention to us. I just wish she could stay here all the time and work here instead.

I wonder how she would like that. But she has done that quite often. She seems happier when she works here at home than outside somewhere. Sure we could watch her leave the building. I’ve seen her many times on the street or sidewalk just outside. When that happened, she would wave at me.

I knew that it would be any minute that she would come through the door. So, I’d turn around and face the door. She’d get the message and come home in a matter of minutes. I just wish we could have stayed in the same place together for years and years. Moving around all the time was awful to deal with. My girl knew that and yet she was still able to keep us together though that rough period of her life.

But it wasn’t to be in this place either. *Sigh.* It makes me wish I could have done something to help her out. But I’m just a cat. There wasn’t anything I could do but offer my moral support. It wasn’t enough and she knows it as well as I do.

But I did at least get my wish. Eventually, we were able to stay in one place for years. It was the last home we shared together.

August 1, 2020 0

The Domus Juliana (House of Julius)

juliusmoving2 — photo by Clarabelle Fields

Momma knows her Latin well:

poems, history, evil spells

and places where emperors used to dwell

fancy homes of which she likes to tell

One of mine, she says, I’ll be calling home

a royal palace, a regal dome

with marble walls and gardens to roam

an imperial palace of my very own

There will be birds and sunlight and silken beds

and soft warm spots to set my head

servants will heed my beck and call

as emperor, I’ll rule them all

But there’s a journey first, a ride afar

I hate the carrier, loathe the car

I’ll scream until Momma’s seeing stars–

until we’re there: au revoir, revoir!

July 1, 2020 0

New Home

I’m not sure what happened after we had camped out. I saw my girl moving our stuff out of the place we were in for one night. Spot and I hid from her. Just out of her reach. But it was no use. After she had taken everything out, she came back for us. By then it was dark. She stuffed me into another carrier. She put Spot into a backpack that she put on her back. She set my carrier down in a basket. The back basket of her tricycle. She took us to our new home.

I had a lot to say about this move. It was the first time I had ridden on a tricycle. It wasn’t as bad as a car. My girl could ride it well. I knew it was her vehicle of choice. I couldn’t understand why Spot was so quiet. Perhaps because he was on her back? He could see better than I could. He had nothing to say about this ride we were forced to take.

It was a short ride. She locked up her tricycle and then picked up my cage. She carried us into the new place. I was still complaining. Now Spot was joining in too. We met no one along the way to our new place. Well, as soon as we were inside, my girl let us out.

Spot went exploring. I wasted no time finding a place to hide. Our stuff was everywhere. It was a big mess. I couldn’t find anything. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to hide. It was a strange place. It was much too scary. My girl was busying organizing things and making too much noise.

As a cat, I don’t need to own a lot of things. It’s just the way it is. Sometimes we get some good extras like furniture made for us. But typically we just need food and water bowls, a litter box, a place to sleep, and something to claw up. We can use the furniture typically thought of as just for humans. It’s our home too. We like to share everything. Have you noticed? I know my girl did. She is quite smart about us cats.

But you just wouldn’t believe how much stuff my girl used to own. It was unreal whenever we had to move. It was too much. She doesn’t have that much anymore. She is traveling as light as she’s been able to. Some people have told her she still has too much. She’s shocked by that. She has reduced what she’s owned over the years and feels freer and lighter than when we were moving around too much as far as I’m concerned.

Even she could agree on that. So, it was good for all of us that we had another apartment for just the three of us again. It had a sleeping alcove. My girl loved it. She had a job that caused her to be on a different sleep schedule and she appreciated having that alcove. She put up a curtain and it was cozy and dark. There were lots of pillows to protect her when she tossed and turned as she slept.

She even went swimming in a pool at night. I could smell the chlorine on her when she came back. It wasn’t a pleasant smell. Then she would do some writing and work on her magazine that she had at the time. It was quite a life for a time.

But that place was so dark when she turned out the lights that she couldn’t see me at all. In fact, she couldn’t see much of anything. I could tell her I was right there. She never stepped on me when I told her how close she was to me. Bless her for that.

Then I don’t know what was going on. I made a vocal sound that disturbed her. I was loud about it too. She complained that I was sounding just like a full fledged tom cat. She reminded me I wasn’t one anyone and hadn’t been for quite a long time.

I didn’t listen. I kept making the noise, but then I would jump up on the bed and rub up against her. I so love my girl. For once I was the one who was driving her crazy. I suppose we were outside for too long. Spot never did this. It could be that he was fixed at a younger age than I was. He never sprayed either. I of course knew how to spray. I did it on purpose to get my girl’s attention whenever I got mad at her. It annoyed her so much… And the ways in which she reacted tended to get ridiculous that I still knew she hated what I was doing, but still loved me unconditionally at the same time.

But he was the one who sometimes would venture out with her. We were inside a building, so it wasn’t a big deal. But he usually freaked out when he heard someone else. I don’t know why he wanted to explore the place beyond our apartment. But that was Spot. I was quite content to stay inside our little place to ponder my life as it was in our safe little space.

My meditation was good there. It was a nice place. Don’t ask me why we left there. My girl never said. I was beginning to think something was wrong. Something she found difficult to talk about and difficult to deal with. But our lives were about to change radically again.

But at least we were able to stay together. Otherwise I don’t know how I would have gotten through it. The whirlwind was having some serious trouble. I just never knew how bad it was for her. But I do know she did everything she could to keep us all together.

With her serious problem, I don’t know how she was able to keep her promise to Spot and me, but she did. As far as I’m concerned, she did what she should have for us. She did it without complaint to us. But it made her cry too much. I knew she was sick to some extent. In spite of that sickness, she could take care of us and herself. As a cat, I do have a unique perspective on my girl.

I doubt my views of her matched what some other humans were saying about her. Those humans weren’t very nice to my girl or to my kind in general. Unfortunately, they were the ones who dictated certain things to my girl and she had to comply. At least for a time. But never forever.

April 1, 2020 0

Moving for the First Time

I have to admit that I didn’t want to have anything to do with my girl when we had first met. The moment I saw her, I knew she was a whirlwind. So, I kept running away from her. She kept coming back and talking to the blind guy. Before I realized what was happening, she was cleaning up our water and food bowls and filling them up! I knew it was her. I could smell her.

Then my brother told me how kind and gentle she was. He was lonely once when she had walked past him. He had begged her to pet him. I wasn’t so brave as to ask someone I didn’t know to pet me. She petted him and he loved her for it. He couldn’t stop talking about her and telling me how wonderful she was.

I do have manners. I know I’m a curmudgeon, but I still have manners. So, I thanked her for taking care of our food and water bowls. I had no idea then how important she would become to me. It was simply a matter of time. Things were set. But tragedy stuck. First my brother died. The blind guy suspected someone had given my brother poison.

He was much too young. I miss him so much. He was my constant companion from birth. It just wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t have died then. But he did.

But that wasn’t the end of the tragedies. The blind guy went and fell in love with my girl’s mother and then he went away. I found myself all alone at the house. But my girl came and looked after me. I was hoping she would just move in with me and we could live happily ever after. I was thinking and dreaming about how it would be with her. It was at that point that I knew she would take good care of me and would be the best caregiver and caretaker I could ever ask for.

But that’s not how it went. I remember she had asked me if I wanted to live with her. I had told her of course. But I thought she was going to move in with me. I didn’t find out my error until a few days later. She and some guy friend of hers came. I refused to leave my only home. Really, it wasn’t fair at all. They should have understood that.

Before I had realized what had happened, I was trapped in a room with no way out. The guy talked to me and had me cornered. I didn’t know what to do. My girl was in the room too, but she was distant and quiet. The guy stuffed me into a box and he carried me out. He put me into a car and both of them came along. Then we went for a ride.

I hate to travel unless I’m the one moving. No cars for me. No putting me into boxes. I absolutely hate it. I had been tricked! It was one of the worst moments of my life. No one seemed to care how upsetting this was for me. I really had thought she was going to move in with me. But no.

They both had a hard time catching me. I had lived there my entire life. I was born in the backyard. Didn’t they care about that? Probably not. They were just trying to catch me!

I was tricked. How dare they! I am a cat and this was an injustice. So, I complained the whole trip. I only got quiet after I had found myself in a strange place. As soon as I was released from the cage, I quickly found a place to hide. That was the only thing I could do. I hid in the closet surrounded by her clothes. They smelled of her.

So, for a long time I was quiet. I didn’t know what else was going to happen. I don’t even know how long I hid in the closet. I just knew that they both had left me alone in a strange place. She was the only one who came back later. She called me.

I slowly and cautiously came out and looked around at the new place. I didn’t know what to think. She was kind and encouraging to me. She showed me the litter box. She picked me up and set me down quickly and gently in it. I didn’t need to use it then, so I stepped out of it. She had picked me up— I hate to be picked up! She pointed out my food and water bowls.

She was gentle with me. But I hate to be picked up! She did learn that eventually, but she still did it. *Sigh.* Don’t get me wrong. I love my girl unconditionally, but sometimes she does things I don’t like. And that was just one of them.

So she had at least thought that far ahead to provide me with a litter box. It didn’t take me long to learn that she wasn’t going to let me outside. I asked her often, but she refused to open the door for me. I was trapped inside with her! This new place was still strange and much smaller than my first home.

At least the guy who had caught me wasn’t here. And if he came by to visit, I always hid from him. I never wanted to have anything more to do with him. So, you can imagine my shock when I learned he funded my online magazine. Ugh… I still don’t like him, but I thank him for the support. My girl tells me he likes cats. Perhaps he does. But I still don’t like him because he had tricked me.

June 1, 2019 0