Stray Cat Blues

When I was 19, I transferred from George Mason University to Arizona State. It was a weird time in my life and I wanted to get away from the east coast and try something new. I knew a few people out in AZ and visited them for spring break that year. I was sold. I applied and was accepted and moved out there in May of 1995.

Once I had settled into the house I was renting with my roommate, it was time to get my cat. I always had pets growing up, including a cat who I adored. My roommate had a dog, so I was ready for a cat.

The night before we went to the Humane Society in Mesa, we watched this hokey movie, "Corrina Corrina" with Whoopie Goldberg. It was pretty lame, but there was this little boy in the movie that I found to be hilarious. His name was Percy and for some reason, I loved him. He was spunky and feisty and when he laughed, his mouth opened as wide as his face and his whole body shook.

When we got to the Humane Society the next day, they took us to see the cats. It was this long hallway-type room with cages lining the walls. The doors to the cages were mesh that went from the floor to the ceiling, with a little shelf in the middle, probably about chest-height for an average adult. I walked into the room and my eyes went straight to this little black fluff ball that had somehow gotten himself on the middle shelf. He was meowing and his mouth was so wide, you could hardly see the rest of his little face. That was it, I wanted him. He was spunky and feisty. He had guts since he climbed that huge cage door. It was Percy.

When doing the paperwork, we found out the Mesa Humane Society is not a no-kill shelter and they give their animals 11 days to be adopted before they "dispose" of them. Percy was on his 10th day and I saved his little life.

I should have known from the car ride home that living with Percy wouldn't be easy. He scratched and clawed me the whole way, all 5 minutes, back to the house. I was wearing a tank top and my whole upper body was covered in scratches and blood. I looked like an extra in a horror movie. But we survived.

I have to say Percy was a pretty hilarious kitten. He was about a month old when I got him and he was certainly feisty. He tormented my roommate's dog, he climbed the curtains in the house and would sleep on top of the curtain rod, he would get into everything. Then there were his stealth attacks. He would hide somewhere and pounce on you when you were least expecting it. Jump on your head, your shoulders, attach himself to your legs, whatever he could sink his teeth and claws into. The worst was what I termed "the Koala bear." He would jump up on your leg and wrap himself around your leg using his claws and gnaw your leg. Thinking about it now I laugh because it must have been hilarious seeing me try to get him off my leg. But at the time I was not pleased.

And this was just our first summer together. By September, I moved out of the house and into an apartment closer to school. It was me and Percy living large. That cat definitely made for interesting moments. He would steal my food, jump into the refrigerator if you left the door open long enough (I did have air conditioning so it wasn't that hot!), he would jump into the shower when you were done so he could lick the water droplets. Then he would stay in there and scare the crap out of you when he would pop out while you were in the bathroom.

His love of food really developed that fall. I couldn't simply eat a yogurt and throw away the container because Percy would knock the trash can down and go into the trash to get the container. Those last few licks were worth all the trouble, I assume. I would have to run the containers through the dishwasher before throwing them out. If I left my lunch out in the morning before school, and didn't put it in my bag right away, Percy would tear into it. A lot of times I wouldn't know until I pulled it out later and noticed the holes in the bag of my sandwich. I had to schedule his neutering several times because the nights before the surgery, when he needed to fast, he would somehow get into the cabinet and gnaw a hole into his food bag and eat half the bag. No matter where I put the food, he found it. He was like a dog.

Oh, that cat was my sidekick. He traveled across the country several times. I took him home for Christmas (where he would promptly knock the Christmas tree down); he's probably flown more than most people. When we moved back east, he was right there in between me and my dad in the truck. He's even been to Graceland.

Percy was there for all my big life moments. He was pissed when John and I started dating and eventually moved in together and got married. He tolerated John to say the least, though he attacked him as much as he did me (that's how we knew Percy loved John). We had a pet rabbit named Rupert. Percy actually liked him. He would sit on top of his crate and put his paw in and bat him around. When we let Rupert out, though, Percy wouldn't really bother him. Percy tolerated Lola when we brought her home. But he promptly showed her who was boss and attacked her quite often. He was indifferent when Keller was born, which was a good thing. He would sniff at him but then walk away.

Percy's health started going downhill when he was about 10 or 11. There were a couple of times when we didn't know if he would make it. But he always did. Then last summer the vet said his kidneys were only functioning at about 25%. We gave him subcutaneous fluids and a special diet, but that was about all we could do. Even though he seemed fine, he had lost a lot of weight and was losing his spunky self. In the beginning of February, we took him to the vet and we were told his kidneys weren't really functioning, he was probably in some pain and things were not looking good. So, we let him go. Once we knew he may have been in pain, we knew we shouldn't hang on to him. That's not right.

How do you say goodbye to your first love? Percy was the one constant in my life for 16 years. I knew him longer than my husband. He may have been an asshole at times, and I have the scars to prove it, but he was my cat and I loved him. He greeted me when I came home and kept me company when I needed him. Life with Percy was interesting. You never knew what would happen!

I still think I see him in areas around the house. And I swear I hear him meowing and chirping every now and then. It makes me sad that the birth of the babies will be the first big moment in my life that Percy won't be a part of. But we'll always remember him and love him.