I laughed, I cried, It was Better than Cats!

Really, what could possibly be better than cats (real cats that is, not the Broadway kind!)?

Nothing, I say - nothing is better than a cat!



While many of you have heard loads of tales (tales, get it?) about the adorable Henry and Mae, I have actually been lucky enough to have quite a few very special cats in my life.

The first cat in my life was actually long-gone before I came along. Shalamar was a Siamese cat that lived next to my grandma before I was born. It was widely known that my grandmother did NOT like cats, but for some reason she liked Shalamar. I hears stories of Shalamar all my young life and after my dad died, I actually found a picture of her. I would put it here, but back in June I packed it and it has not yet reemerged.

The second special cat was an imaginary one...when I was little I wanted a cat very, very badly. Also, when I was little, I didn't like to take naps (oh, how times have changed!). So Cohen Sr. and Susan P. arranged this thing where I would put a bowl of milk out before I went up for my nap and my mother would dump it out while I was sleeping and that's how I would know the kittie came by during my nap. It doesn't sound so cool now, but when I was a kid, it was really, really cool.

The next special cat in my life was Kip, or, more accurately, Alexander Kip Kittie Cohen. Yup, that was really his name. He came into our life when I was in pre-school. He was shy. We used to call him "the original fraid-y cat." Some of my friends growing up didn't even believe we had a cat!
Kip, as we called him, was really Matt's cat, and then maybe my mom's and then mine & my dad's. Even though I wasn't his favorite, I learned so much from Kip. Here's a poem I wrote about him a long, long time ago:

cat

holding him
above my head

watching him
claw for my arms

every time
i hold him high
every time
he reaches for me


this is how i learned to love
this is why i am who i am

Kip had to be put to sleep when I was a senior in high school. He had throat cancer. The night before we took him in, before we knew what was going on, I sat up with him, holding him in my lap. I could tell he was having trouble breathing and I didn't know how to make him feel better. I just sat cross-legged on my bedroom floor petting him until my mom woke up. I didn't just learn about love from Kip, I learned about loss as well.

The next cat who came into my life was Lily. Lily has been passed around a lot. I don't know who her cat parents were, nor do I know who her first human parents were, but my friend E adopted her from a shelter in NYC in the late 90s. When E could no longer keep her, I was lucky enough to adopt her with my roommate R. Mr. Happy happened to be in town the day I picked her up and I will never forget the cab ride back to Brooklyn with Lily crying loudly the whole way and the less than understanding cab driver grumbling a lot. A few years after R and I adopted her, R and I went out separate ways...I moved to Maryland and R was good enough to let me take Lily with me.

Lily and I travelled a lot that year in Maryland. I would bring her back to Brooklyn to visit R and my then BF, now husband, SMS quite often. Then, in late December 1999 I was getting ready for 10 days in New York with Lily when my mom called. My grandmother had been hospitalized and I needed to return to Pittsburgh, so Lily made that trip with me as well. And there she stayed. She became my dad's cat overnight. Unlike his human daughter, Lily followed him everywhere and did everything he said. It was truly spooky!

When my parents split, Lily stayed with my dad. When my dad died, Lily moved in with my mom. Although it may seem like being passed around would be hard on a cat, I just think of it as a way to have more people love her. She is sweet and kind and truly nocturnal. She doesn't really let you sleep, but it's hard to get mad at a cat who is waking you up at 3a.m. by pushing her cold wet nose into your nostril (no joke!). In fact it's a lot better than being awakened at 3a.m. to clean cat pee of the rug, which happened to me this morning (Mae is going to the vet on Friday!).

But the sad news is, Lily isn't doing so well. There is something wrong with her kidneys and it isn't clear if it's an infection or cancer. They are treating it as if it's an infection, if the treatment works, they're right, if not, it's cancer. My mom is very sad. I am very sad. Lily is very tired, but doesn't seem to be in much pain. I will continue to update and I hope it turns out to be nothing, but for now, well, for now I'm just sad.