Rest in Peace

Buddy, BK, and Blondie - Summer 2008

I remember the day we first saw little BK.  It was the first winter we were here - probably January 2007.  He was talking the entire time he walked up the front walk.  There was a yellow tiger cat that year as well (with a chewed ear).  I put food out on the front porch for them.  Later I "built" a little shelter on the deck to ward off the snow and cold winds.  BK would enter the shelter (a tarp under which I had placed a wooden drawer with a towel).  He'd use it from time to time.  

I must admit for a little guy, he was a scrapper.   He'd go away for several days (once for two weeks), and then come back skin and bones or with small wounds.  I always figured he'd been courting the girls, but since he was so small he likely got the left overs.    Eventually he adopted us as his colony - I think it was the summer of 2008.  One day the other three went outside, and he just walked in, looked around, helped himself to some food, and snuggled down on a chair.  He came and went ever since.

BK (for Black Kitty, naturally) was the best mouser I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  He taught the others to roam along the edges of the tall grass and then pounce.  I only wish I could find a photo of BK in action, because he was terrific.   I would love watching him sit patiently beside the grass and then suddenly fly almost vertically to pounce on the unsuspecting field mouse.  They certainly were tasty treats in his mind.

He started spending more time inside than out, but then the "kitty rut" would start and off he'd go - leaving us for days or even a week or more.  But he always returned, with that distinct, plaintive cry of his.  We'd welcome him back, he'd head for the food, and then snuggle on my lap.  Who would have thought that noisy kitty of the first winter, the one who would never let me within 10 feet of him, would become a lap kitty with a terrific purr.

Today was a very sad day.  BK could not even stand up, he shook and his legs gave way.  He stayed in the cat carrier, where he'd been laying for the past two days (since Buddy's return from the vet).  He's been sick.  I knew this would be his last day.  We went outside and I put him on a towel.  After an hour or so he stood up!  He as on very shaky legs.  He didn't want to be on the towel, and left it for the boards of the deck.  

I had a couple errands to run, and returned to his shallow breathing.  I put him in the shady spot of the deck where he used to love to spend his afternoons.  His breathing slowed and his temperature was really dropping low.  I went out several times to stroke him and talk to him.  Then I went out and read to him.  He quit breathing.

Rest in Peace little one.  When you get to the other side, Wally has a big lap for you to sit in. Give my regards to Bandit and BB Gato.

"'The Masai,' he wrote,'have reported to the District Commissioner at Ngong, that many times, at sunrise and sunset, they have seen lions on Finch-Hatton's grave in the Hills.   A lion and a lioness have come there, stood, or lain, on the grave for a long time. ... After you went away, the ground around the grave was levelled out, into sort of a big terrace, I suppose that the level place makes a good site for the lions, from there they can have a view over the plain, and the cattle and game on it.'" - Isak Dinesen,  Out of Africa