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We didn't have Warrl for very long, really. It has been over a year since we brought him home to keep Dad company. Dad didn't really know much at that point, but he kept trying to call cats over to pet them. The cat we had already(Annie, our tabby cat) was super independent and not really into affection. So we asked around looking for a really affectionate cat that was looking for a home and got Warrl. He kept Dad company while he was ill, and then kept us company after Dad died.
Warrl loved affection, but wasn't a lap cat. He wanted to be next to you, not on you. He would sit on his hind legs with his front paws up and ask for attention by placing his paw on your arm as you sat in a chair(usually the computer chair) and lightly flex his(super sharp) claws. Not breaking the skin, mind you, just flexing them, but really hard to ignore( I think that was the point). He was a very black short hair cat with the softest blackest velvetiest fur I have seen on a short hair cat. His paws and face hair were like thick black plush and he didn't like the sun, so he wasn't faded to brown like many black cats are. His eyes were a wonderful green and they were usually fixed on you, the nearest person with hands to pet him.
I am having a hard time believing that he isn't going to be around anymore. He won't be playing tag with Annie and running up and down the hallway like a herd of elephants anymore, or winding around my ankles at just the wrong moment to trip me. He won't be finding by his own sixth sense the one person in a roomful of 6 RPG gamers that happens to be allergic to cats and pestering them for affection anymore. He's not around to eat the beef flavored cat food that Annie doesn't like. Or to beg for catnip(he was a catnip addict;it was hillarious to watch him roll in it).
(If you are squeamish stop here.)
Last night he went outside for a bit of night air and never made it back in. This morning I found him with his neck broken and partially eaten by a coyote or dog. He was very dead, which doesn't explain why when I called for him, I thought I heard a cat moan, and looked over the little stone wall into the neighbors yard and found him. I can only hope that the broken neck means that he didn't suffer much. He was much more fit than he was when we got him(living with Annie would do that;she loves to play tag and they chased each other around alot), but we always said his Dex/agility was pathetic(on a scale of 1 to 100, it would have been under 30...WITH the racial bonus for being a cat). He was never much of a jumper or climber, though he was strong otherwise. Against a dog or coyote though, jumping would have been his only defense. The only thing that's going to save Annie from getting locked in the house the rest of her natural days is the fact that she is a great jumper, can jump the chainlink fences, and spends most of her outdoors time on the roof.
I miss you, Warrl.
Warrl loved affection, but wasn't a lap cat. He wanted to be next to you, not on you. He would sit on his hind legs with his front paws up and ask for attention by placing his paw on your arm as you sat in a chair(usually the computer chair) and lightly flex his(super sharp) claws. Not breaking the skin, mind you, just flexing them, but really hard to ignore( I think that was the point). He was a very black short hair cat with the softest blackest velvetiest fur I have seen on a short hair cat. His paws and face hair were like thick black plush and he didn't like the sun, so he wasn't faded to brown like many black cats are. His eyes were a wonderful green and they were usually fixed on you, the nearest person with hands to pet him.
I am having a hard time believing that he isn't going to be around anymore. He won't be playing tag with Annie and running up and down the hallway like a herd of elephants anymore, or winding around my ankles at just the wrong moment to trip me. He won't be finding by his own sixth sense the one person in a roomful of 6 RPG gamers that happens to be allergic to cats and pestering them for affection anymore. He's not around to eat the beef flavored cat food that Annie doesn't like. Or to beg for catnip(he was a catnip addict;it was hillarious to watch him roll in it).
(If you are squeamish stop here.)
Last night he went outside for a bit of night air and never made it back in. This morning I found him with his neck broken and partially eaten by a coyote or dog. He was very dead, which doesn't explain why when I called for him, I thought I heard a cat moan, and looked over the little stone wall into the neighbors yard and found him. I can only hope that the broken neck means that he didn't suffer much. He was much more fit than he was when we got him(living with Annie would do that;she loves to play tag and they chased each other around alot), but we always said his Dex/agility was pathetic(on a scale of 1 to 100, it would have been under 30...WITH the racial bonus for being a cat). He was never much of a jumper or climber, though he was strong otherwise. Against a dog or coyote though, jumping would have been his only defense. The only thing that's going to save Annie from getting locked in the house the rest of her natural days is the fact that she is a great jumper, can jump the chainlink fences, and spends most of her outdoors time on the roof.
I miss you, Warrl.
. I have had several '4 legged family members' taken from me over the years, though only the last was exclusively MY child. It hurts. There will always be a small hole where each of them was, though most especially Sherry, who was my companion from college through the first year of my marriage 14 years later. It's been over a year now since I lost Sherry, and it DOES get easier, I promise. Most of the time the companionship of my adult cat, or the puppy we adopted last summer, keeps me from even missing her. But even when something makes me remember, and cry, I can smile through the tears as I remember her antics, and I comfort myself by knowing she's playing with the other pets my family has lost over the years, and that one day I'll see her again.
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