A roll call

Chloe is turning into an old lady cat. I’m not exactly sure of her age; when I adopted her from the animal rescue in October, 2001, they thought she was one or two years old. I always leaned toward the younger age because she behaved so much like a kitten. But she’s slowing down now. She’s more tentative when she jumps up on my lap and lately she’s been crying at me when I’m sitting at my desk. I think it’s because she wants up on my lap but her joints hurt. It’s hard to know since cats can’t exactly say where they hurt.

That got me thinking about all the cats that have been in my life and I realized I’ve never had one die of old age before. In fact, only two have died while in my care. The rest who are gone are gone because we moved and it wasn’t possible to take them with us or we found them a home better suited to them. So here’s my roll call of kitties and what happened to them:

Tom: tuxedo cat my first husband and I got in Germany. He was a very rambunctious kitten and loved to zoom around the apartment. If you were in the way, he just bounced off you. When I got pregnant, we realized a baby and that particular cat weren't the best match. We found him a home without children.

Jessie: female tiger from a friend, also in Germany and the best cat ever. Jordan was a toddler then and he’d grab her fur in a babyish attempt to pet her and she just didn’t care. She never laid a claw on him. We found her a new home before we left Germany.

Stratocat: mixed breed male in Columbus from the animal shelter. He peed on the carpet so back he went. I had one toddler struggling with toilet training and one baby in diapers. That was enough bodily waste for me to deal with.

Tigger: tuxedo cat my former mother-in-law gave me after my unsuccessful attempts to get a feral kitten from under her porch in Muncie. Tigger was only six weeks when we got him and he was a fantastic cat, loved to be held and didn’t mind when the boys were inadvertently rough with him. He died at six from a heart defect and broke all our hearts.

Daniel Stripped Tiger: tiger cat, also in Columbus with the thickest tail you ever saw—seriously it was like a raccoon tail. He was shy, very, very shy and we weren’t the best house for him. Before we moved from Columbus to Lawrence, KS, we found him another home because at the time we had three cats and that’s just a lot of cats to move.

Mags: female whiney calico cat we took for a friend who could not have pets in her home. I kept her out of guilt, that is the only reason because that cat was needy, whiney and clingy. She was also a great hunter and brought us all kinds of dead and almost dead presents. I gave her to my best friend at the time, where she lived until about 20 years of age.

Henry: another tuxedo cat we got in Lawrence after Mags was gone and Tigger had died. He got passed around a lot, from us to my ex and his wife, to me, to a friend and I don’t know where he ended up. Mostly he was mellow. He wasn't really a lap cat but he would always sit right by me.

Ernie: the biggest cat I've ever owned. He was another all black cat with huge green eyes and he looked like a panther. He weighed 25 pounds and was the most affectionate cat. He liked to put his paws on either shoulder and stick his face on mine and purr. I had to move to a place that didn't allow pets so I gave him to a family with two kids. They loved him but unfortunately, as often happens with male cats, he developed kidney issues and died about a year later and broke all their hearts.

Chloe: I adopted her in Kansas City and she’s still here although slowing down.

Sammie: super sweet black kitten I adopted at seven months in spite of Kent’s reservations. His exact words to me about getting a second cat: It’s YOUR cat, Charlie Brown. Of course that guaranteed that Sammie bonded with Kent. He died from feline infectious peritonitis at 14 months and broke both our hearts.

Wally and Eddie: crazy litter mate boys, one butterscotch (Wally) and one gray tiger (Eddie) but with the exact same markings and body language. They refuse to let Chloe sleep her life away. Honestly I think she’s in better shape today than she was before we got them because they force her to be active.

So there you have it, all the cats I’ve had as an adult and where they are now.