Sorting things on a cold, cold day

This is a memory from two years ago. Old, sweet, smelly Comet. (And I add the last stanza of the poem)

How long has it been since we had no small animal being living with us? How long has it been since a slice of the day was not reserved for a fur thing with all their needs? Comet was twenty-one, very old; toothless, deaf, near blind, skinny and still fierce about life, until she wasn’t. According to one website she was one hundred in human years; others don’t register an age past nineteen years. She had her own room (at night) for the past few years because she wandered at night yowling. In Belgium it was the kitchen, in Berwyn she got a big room downstairs. In this house she had a suite, a bedroom and her own human bathroom where her litter box, food and water stayed. When we had human guests, she was moved to the spare room by my office. Every room was kept very warm as she was a furry little lady but just over five pounds.

Comet is the last cat of the five that lived with us. Comet, Sunspot, Kiki, Jackson and Phil. Phil was the youngest, Comet the oldest. She outlived them all, out of spite we think. (There have been murder rumors.) She tolerated the dogs, Red and Rusty. She moved eight times with us (funny how that happens). She was an indoor cat for twenty and a half years (the time she spent with us). She was not a mouser, chased down the hall by a mouse in Klamath Falls (all secrets are revealed eventually). She is the subject of many pictures, many poems, many musings. As an orange tabby female, she was rare, as a cat rescued and then living such a long life, as she did, she was rare. She was never sick, she never went to the vet except for checkups and to update to her vaccines.

Comet “Comeisina” Hope was adopted in Connecticut in 1999, when Issac and Justine were kids (sigh) and moved with us to Oregon as a young cat in 2002 living outside of Klamath Falls for many years. In 2013 she moved with her humans to Belgium. To the surprise of everyone, in 2017 she returned to America. In 2018 she arrived in O’Fallon and began her final reign. She enjoyed roast chicken, a spot of sunshine and a warm lap. She was a good cat, a good fur heart. She was well loved.