Not two days after I posted the last entry, I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat.
This picture was taken that very morning. For the month leading up to this, I'd been leaving my house assuming it was the last time I'd see her, so it wasn't a TOTAL shock, but it still hit me pretty hard.
She made it to 18, much longer than the other cats I've had. It was a terminal case of O-L-D, I'm afraid. She was pretty blind and arthritic near the end, not going up and down stairs or up on couches as much. And she really liked going out of her way to avoid using the litterbox. Like, we put down a second litter box in the spot she usually went in, thinking that would solve it. But no. She'd go BEHIND them to do her business. That's usually a sign that the end was coming.
She came with the name Cleopatra, but had many others over the course of her life: Cleah (clee-ah), Gypsy, Miss America, Mrs. Peabody, Miss Prissy, Dummy cat, critter, or just Cat. She loved chewing on plastic, and sleeping in those boxes water bottles used to come in. She hadn’t been doing much in her later years, mostly meowing and drinking water. But she was always down to lay down next to me and watch tv with me or sleep on her favorite pillows.
She never liked being held, and mostly tolerated it when I picked her up. Only ate dry cat food, nothing else. I called her my picky little princess. We’ve been through so much together. She literally outlived a good chunk of my family, not to mention relationships, hurricanes, Covid, the whole nine. This is literally the end of an era for me. She literally predated this blog. I said there’s not many things I love more in this world than this cat, and I meant it. I’ll break down eventually.
Here are some other great pictures of her.
Needless to say that she was my favorite subject. My muse, if you will.
And here are two of the first pictures I took of her. Yes, those dates are correct.
She had sass since day one. I miss you so much.
My one wish was to get more time with her, and I got it. My other wish is for all of you to see her how I saw her, the cutest cat in the world. Everyone thinks THEIR cat is the cutest one, and they're all right. But MY cat. She was the cutest one.
So...basically my month ended way better than it started.
Like, on Sunday I finally got to go to the flea market for the first time this year! And I hit pay dirt!
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| "Bayou Billy? I hoped you saved the receipt!" |
Yeah, you saw that right. I was VERY tempted to get it, just for the sheer novelty of it. But I didn't.
And here's what I ultimately went home with:
Yeah, you see a VHS copy of Mac & Me for two bucks, you don't hesitate to grab it. Even if I haven't owned a VCR in about a decade and a half.
And I found a Ren & Stimpy comics trade I didn't have yet! You might remember last month's entry (scroll down) where I caved and went to eBay for issue 43 of the Ren & Stimpy comics, the last issue I needed. The booth I got that trade at had a whole mess of comics, and one box of licensed ones.
They had only a few Ren & Stimpy comics. And guess which issue I found?!
Number 43. AND the mini Wizard special issue. I was kicking myself, but the eBay ones were kinda cheaper, but it really DID feel like I cheated. But hindsight being 20/20 and all that.
And that Maximum Occupancy sign was from a game store near where I live that closed down not too long ago. Not sure how it ended up with the guy selling the Coca-Cola memorabilia, but I wasn't in the mood to ask. He was kinda pushy and was obsessed with wanting the shirt off my back.
