Another loss ... this time, the newest member of the household, "Baby"

Baby 2006-2007

With Alberto Gonzales having finally stepped aside as Attorney General, I had hoped to write something … well, rather feisty and full of sarcastic humor today. But instead, I feel the heaviness of heart that only those of you who have lost a really dear friend can feel.

Baby (a name I would never give so majestic an animal as she was/is) is dead. I woke up at about 5:15 this morning with a warm furry "something" in the curl of my neck. But what wakened me was nothing more than a feeling that something was wrong. The warm furry feeling in the curl of my neck was real, but more of a chimera than any reality of which I am familiar. When I went to move her out of the curl of my neck, I realized that she was stiff—already in rigor mortis, although still warm.

Interestingly, the picture above was taken only about five hours before her death (assuming she died only moments before I awoke). I had just combed the matted hair on her head and thought she looked "picture-perfect." Also, I had only bought the camera earlier in the day and this was a chance to try out my abilities (NOT) to get the thing working. I managed to take two pictures of “Baby.”

I won't go into the entire story about how Baby came into my home and into my heart, but let me simply say that she loved me more than I believed that any animal could love someone not of his or her species. Yes, she was not feeling well, and that might be both part of the reason that she clung to me every moment that I was in the house—and why she couldn't help but urinate on my chest in the middle of the night when she was unable to get to the kitty-litter. She left a couple of other "presents" on my T-shirt in the middle of the night, but I'd rather not have this blog posting become indecorous—especially since it is dedicated to the most loving friend a person could ever have.

I had made an appointment to see the veterinarian this morning at 11:30 because I noticed that Baby was making strange sounds (she meowed like Donald Duck quacks—and that is not meant to be funny) and not eating as well as she had been when she was first dropped off in my house about six months ago. I was planning on renaming her "Maybelline" for her records at the veterinarians since she actually responded to her name and "Maybelline" was as close to "Baby" as I could come up with--it even kind of sounds like "Baby." The "Baby" moniker was hung on her by an 85-year old woman who fed her while she was running about as a feral cat in the neighborhood. Then, another woman (a former housekeeper and a care-giver to the older woman) who insisted I watch her until she could find and apartment for them both, told me that her "official" name was "Baby."

Of course, the care-giving woman found an apartment that did not permit pets.

You know? I only remembered moments ago that the "given name" on my own birth certificate was "Baby." Hmm ... coincidence or what?

Also of note is the fact that my other cats all stayed away from my bedroom for the past week—as if knowing that Baby needed all the love she could get from me. Later this morning, they all returned as if they knew I now needed their love and friendship. Ralph, in particular, hadn't been even inside my bedroom all of last week and weekend, but he was the first to hop into my bed almost immediately after I had wrapped Baby in a pink blanket on the floor at the foot of the bed. He licked my head and purred the most wonderful and reassuring “words” into my ears. I picked up Ralph and his brother, George, in Saudi Arabia in a past lifetime. It seems strange to think back to when I discovered them being abused by a couple of "princes" in a palace in Riyadh just after the first Gulf war.

They were with the other five kitties whom I have acquired at the bedroom window when I went out back to dig Baby's grave under a rhododendron bush.

Don't tell me that animals—our pets, in particular—don’t wait for us in the same Heaven to which we all aspire. I truly believe that I have a brand new four-pawed angel somewhere among the stardust that comprises Heaven and I look forward to seeing some of my four-legged friends among the two-legged loved ones whom I've lost over the years.

Just thought you’d want to know.