As I told you below, Buddy had to be put to sleep earlier this month. He was a member of our family for a long time. Like most cats, Buddy had some behaviors that were his alone, although he hadn't performed some of them in his last weeks.
Another of our cats, Annie, is a calico we adopted this fall. By the time she started spending most of her time indoors, Buddy was weak and not himself. They didn't interact much if at all. He hung out by the water dish, lying down, and Annie could always be found curled up in a chair, asleep.
After Buddy died, Annie started doing some things she had never done before. They are things Buddy used to do all the time before he got sick, but Annie had no way of knowing that.
First, she took over his window seat. Okay, that makes sense. It's a nice window seat, and it was empty. Then she started walking on the stove...like Buddy. Then I found her curled up in the downstairs bathroom sink. Over the years I took many pictures of Buddy curled up in the downstairs bathroom sink. Then she began trying to share Angel's dog bed. Buddy used to drive Angel nuts doing this. Then she began hanging out in the upstairs bathroom, and trying to get on the lap of anyone who was using the bathroom...like Buddy. Finally, yesterday when I was making the dogs' dinners on the kitchen counter, Annie jumped up and started eating it. It was as though Buddy, a grey tabby, had turned into a calico!
She performed Buddy behaviors for several days, until I realized that Buddy, working through Annie, was showing me that his spirit had survived and he was still very much around. Once I came to that realization (with great appreciation), Annie went back to being her normal self.
The older I get, the less things like this surprise me.
Thanks, Buddy.
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2 comments:
This one gave me chills.
Do the cat(s) like water, or just the comfort of the sink? (My sister's cats love water and are always around the sinks.)
PS: I have listed this blog and your 365 as links on the new one I hope to start (you can get there via my 365). If you don't want to be listed there, please let me know.
That's fine, IB--thanks! I'm glad to hear you're starting a new one.
I think some cats like water. We had one who loved to play with the faucet. And another who, tragically, drowned in our swimming pool. In addition to curling up in the sink, Buddy was our Guardian of the Water Dish, always ready to tell me when it was getting low.
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