End of an era

My infatuation with cats started early. Over the course of my childhood, we had many cats and I loved them all. After we married, we were catless for probably 12 or 15 years. But the girls wanted a kitty, so about 16 years ago, we got two kittens from a friend. One of them disappeared early on, but the second one, Splity, prospered and thrived.

After 16 or so good years, Splity died a week ago of old age. She was a good cat. She was a hunter and a fierce defender of her kittens, back when she was having kittens. She roamed our neighborhood in Mt. Vernon and the neighbors all knew and loved her. Once when we went Christmas caroling, our neighbor across the street said, "Oh, if you're looking for your cat, she's sleeping with my wife."

She wasn't much of a lap cat, although she had become more so after we lost our yellow cat in December. But I miss her, and the other cat, too. No one greets me with yowls when I come home. No one bothers me to get me to fill the cat bowl or open the door. When I'm watching TV or reading, there's no one curled up next to me, purring. We still have Scout, Janet's fish, but she's not much company. I guess I'll have to pay some visits to Tiger Kitty down in Stevens Point.

Once, when I was probably about 8 or 10 years old, one of our cat's was missing on a Sunday morning. After morning church, when I expressed my sadness to Dad, he took me into the playroom, and we knelt down together and prayed that the kitty would come home. Dad went back to church (I think it was while he was the bishop and he had probably come home for a bite to eat) and when I went outside, the cat was coming down the sidewalk from Theo Phillips house.

I'll always cherish that experience. It taught me that we can approach Heavenly Father with something that is important to us, no matter how childish, and he'll hear and answer us. In later years, I have marveled at my dad's patience. I'm sure he was busy, but he took the time to help me learn that lesson. That's just one of the ways loving cats has enriched my life.

I told the kids that when I'm an old lady and confined to home, they can get me another kitten. We travel alot, so we won't be getting another one now. I'll just have to find some surrogate cats somewhere.