Spotos and Tiger
were two prematurely weaned and starving--and soon to be lucky--animals when our family
found them in autumn; in a local park; 21 yrs ago. They were given names that
logically branded them as apt as "Red" or "Slim." Of course, being that our
family's Dysfunctionality Index hovers around 7.8, Spotos would come to be
known as Sasha to all except me. Sasha. What does that convey? The way she
walked? No, she moved like any other feline; might as well have called her
Strayos. Why not? It sounds like Stavros and that's legitimate. Anyway, Spotos settled down with us and Tiger went to live on the
first floor with my in-laws (that reminds me, I got to pick up a costume). There, Tiger stayed with no contact from
Spotos. If they knew of each other's existence they kept it to themselves.
Now, Spotos had a
relationship of mutual respect with our Jack Russell (ground rules were those
of the top cat and they were set day 1).
Tiger, on the other hand, would recoil in horror at just the thought of
seeing the dog. However, life is changing and fleeting. Towards the end, the
dog would come to enjoy napping close to Spotos, the now ancient cat who was no
longer desirous of apartheid. After dying in her sleep, she was interred with
as much fanfare as possible without attracting any neighbors--I played Chopin's
"Funeral March" as my daughter found that there were higher levels of embarrassment that could emanate from dear old Dad.
Tiger too towards
the end, stopped his aversion to our dog and would walk in front of him as if
the dog had gone into another dimension. The strangest thing that's very
personal to me is that Tiger, after 20 years, decided to visit me towards the
end of his life. I've heard it said once that near the end of life, many
regress to childhood behavior. Had old olfactory kitten-hood memories kicked in
to direct him to the human that adopted him and filled his newborn belly with
God-knows-what-it-was I concocted. Or, there's another explanation; one that a
priest or cat-whisperer medium might give me: Tiger was playing peacemaker by
trying to bring me closer to my in-laws from whom I've kept my distance a
while.
Tomorrow might shed
some light on the latter as I've been delegated to bury Tiger next to Spotos on
top of the hill where the dog is himself too old to climb the hill and go
digging up bones.
