We put down my cat today. I’m not into public mourning, like, at all. But the cat is the only thing on my mind right now. I decided to share some fond memories of the cat.
My sister-in-law is a vet tech. Someone dropped a box of kittens at her vet office. I said I’d take one. When we first got the cat, we thought he was a she. Apparently, it’s not easy to sex a kitten. We also thought he was a shorthair. We were wrong about that, too. He was a good groomer, though. Especially for a boy. So, the longhair part wasn’t much of an issue.
My kid was three when we adopted the cat. So, naturally, we let the three-year-old pick the name. They picked Khaleesi (I think we spelled it a little differently every time we wrote it). I had never heard the name before, I kinda thought my kid made it up. Then, I found out that Khaleesi is the name of a Game of Thrones character. That was totally baffling. We didn’t even get HBO, let alone let our kid watch Game of Thrones. I was pretty sure the grandparents weren’t watching it with them, either. I found out later that my kid’s preschool teacher was a big Game of Thrones fan and had named her cat Khaleesi. She told stories about her cat to the kids, so my kid just thought it was a good name for a cat.
Someone asked me today what I liked about my cat. My answer was his enthusiasm.
He was the friendliest cat I’ve ever had. Whenever we got home, or anyone came to the house, he’d come running to the door to greet us.
When I write, I sit with my feet up on the couch and my laptop on my thighs (In my lap? Do you have a lap when your legs are stretched out?). Khaleesi used to curl up on my shins since my lap was unavailable. It never seemed like a comfortable spot, too bony, but he seemed to like it there. He’d purr away as I typed.
His only fear was the vacuum cleaner.
He was a good mouser. He always very kindly left them for me after he’d killed them.
He was a good listener.
Even though his name was Khaleesi, I almost always just called him “cat”. He responded to cat better than his actual name.
I’m really going to miss my cat.
