It was a Friday afternoon in September. I was leaving my office and heading toward my truck to head home for the weekend. My office was next to an overpass and most of the employees in my department parked under it. There was also a u-turn lane underneath that overpass and traffic was always too fast there. We saw lots of accidents. On this Friday, I encountered a little gray and white kitten in the street. She was tiny and about three weeks old we were told later by the vets. There was no mother in sight and she kind of stayed with me. I tried to walk her out of oncoming traffic but I couldn't shake her. She went wherever I went. She would not have made it through the night. I couldn't abandon her.
OK, we'll bring her home, feed her, get her through the night, try to find someone to take her, and if that fails, take her to a shelter. We can't keep her. We're dog people. We have two dogs who love to chase and bark at cats. We have parakeets. A kitten will surely upset the balance. We fed her some bologna that we had in the fridge and stayed with her as the dogs barked at her incessantly and she hissed back at them. At 3 weeks, she had a hiss that was pure evil. We bought a few things to get us through however long we were going to keep her and we put her up for the night isolated from the dogs. After a good night's rest and a full belly, she was ready to put on her charm offensive. She was a purring, jumping, galloping, trilling, bundle of energy. She still hissed a little at the dogs but she could run circles around them and wasn't in the least concerned with them. We couldn't find anyone to take her but we also couldn't take her to a shelter. She found her suckers. We referred to kitty cats as KCs when we didn't want the dogs to know what we were talking about because they knew certain words and would get excited. We named our new kitten Casey.
She repaid our act of love and kindness by tormenting our dogs and parakeets, biting us, scratching us, bouncing on our heads at all hours of the night, and turning her nose up at just about any kind of food we tried to feed her. She liked oysters, though. She could eat them until you ran out. She mellowed some as she got older but not much and we added two more cats after the dogs and parakeets were gone.
Below is my favorite picture of her. It was taken at an apartment we were living in while our house was being built. It was the happiest time of her life. That apartment had a two part stairway that she could gallop up to the first landing and peek around the corner at unsuspecting humans. She loved that place. We used to call her "belly girl" when she would get on her back like this. It meant she wanted someone to rub her belly a secret number of times or it meant she was ready to play. If you went over the secret number, she'd go into kill mode and would clamp down on your appendage with her teeth and front paws and start kicking you with her back claws. It was more than a little unpleasant. Here, she is baiting a trap for our dog, Duncan, to walk into because, really, who can resist that belly? Claws were always retracted for Duncan. She hurt his pride but she never hurt him physically.
Casey took her final ride to the vet this morning and I miss that bouncing, biting, and scratching already. She was 16. R.I.P., Casey girl.
Duncan and Casey - October 1994
She had incredible energy as a kitten. All kittens do, but she took bonkers to heights I haven't witnessed since. She could make a game out of anything. In her first months with us, bedtime was an adventure. Turning off the bedroom light was like setting her internal timer. About 5 minutes after the lights were out, when we were good and settled and getting drowsy, she'd come tearing into the bedroom in high gear, leap on the bed and just proceed to bounce all over us. We easily forgave the rude awakening because it's hard not to appreciate that level of enthusiasm. Getting mad at her would be like getting mad at Winnie the Pooh's Tigger. She outgrew this game, moving on to new ones.
I think she was about 10 months old when we were painting the walls in the living room. We put clear plastic tarps over the carpet to guard against drips. Casey thought it was fabulous fun to crawl around under those tarps, stalking imaginary prey. It made me nervous to see her under that plastic and I tried to discourage it at first, but she soon convinced me she was in no danger of suffocation so we just watched where we stepped and wished her good hunting.
It hurts to say goodbye, but she's left Rob and I with countless good memories. That will have to suffice until we meet up with her again at The Rainbow Bridge.
Ya'll are great. I'm sorry for your loss.
Oh Patsy and Rob, I'm sorry to hear this. You're in my thoughts.
Precious creature. Great memories. I'm sorry to hear about Casey.
Oh Patsy and Rob, my heart is breaking for you right now. I wish they could stay with us forever. I'm sorry for your loss.
Oh gosh, I'm sorry. She spent many glorious years in your loving arms.
Thanks, everyone. We had a very rough day yesterday but life goes on and we'll get through this.
RIP Casey, it certainly sounded like you were a wonderful cat :)
Thanks, Fi. She had a charm that was all her own.
I am not a cat person, but I got a chill when I came to the end of this (even though I saw it coming).
I'm sorry for your loss.
Thanks, Delmer. We miss her.