Wow, I almost missed the transition to this place entirely. Knew it was coming, but got so busy I am just now checking back in. I think it fitting my first post here is about the cat that inspired me to make my first post on the old fora so many years ago.
I'm sad to report that I lost Scatcat a bit over a month ago at 19yrs, 10 months old. He almost made it to 20 after a kittenhood licking of antifreeze that left his stomach so sensitive I had to buy him special food for 18 years (15 years longer than his vet thought he would make it with that kind of internal damage). By the end he was totally deaf, mostly blind, visibly slow, but still able to strike fear and cowering in my two 80+ pound dogs. He passed in his sleep, in one of his favorite spots, while the dogs were at the kennel and I was out of town. I am so thankful I didn't have to make the choice, and it was fully in line with his "I will do things only on my terms" life.
I got him less than a week before I began my professional career, and he had been with me through a public school teaching gig, a toxic grad school culture, an almost equally toxic early-faculty experience, and now into my post-tenure stride. It was a severely disconcerting feeling to walk into the office on the Monday after and realize for the very first time as an academic, he would not be greeting me at the door that night when I came home.
I still don't sleep as well, because -from the day I got him- he slept at my head. That is an absence acutely felt.
Strikingly, Scatkitty (who is now almost 9!) has turned into a completely different cat. Where before, he barely tolerated petting and scritches and preferred roughhouse play with me and the dogs (he weighs 21 pounds, so can hold his own); he now jumps into my lap every night and purrs. He still gets the zoomies and is a high-energy cat, but since Scatcat passed, he spends at least 30 minutes a night laying on me and demanding pets and attention. He also stays in much closer proximity to me that he used to. He has even moved from sleeping at my feet at night to laying behind me near my shoulder.
I'm still trying to decide if I want another cat. I thought so, but the shift in Scatkitty's behavior threw me for a loop and I'm trying to decide if it means he is liking being an only cat and enjoys the undivided attention, or it he is showing his loneliness as well. Every cat I've owned has found me, so I'm sure the universe will arrange a replacement when the time is right....
Scatmanblues
