Today marks the passing of our cat Shadow, who lived with us for 17 years. Shadow grew up in a house with children who were nice to him. The father mistreated him and he was lost from them during a trip, possibly on purpose. Desperate and starving, he finally found Diane’s grandmother, who fed him but would not adopt him since she already had several cats. Instead, she called us. Our cat Sarah, whom Diane had had since before we had gotten married, had recently died. We thought we wanted a female kitten (though not yet), but we agreed to stop to see her grandmother’s adult male stray on a cross country trip that we had planned.
We met him and I had hardly ever seen a friendlier, gentler adult cat. And never before or since have I met a cat with a purr that could be heard 10 feet away. Before we left, Diane picked him up, looked him in the eye and asked, “do you want to be my kitty”? He said yes with all his heart. So we took him home. For a long time he followed us compulsively from room to room. That, rather than his all black coat, is why we named him “Shadow”.
Life wasn’t easy for Shadow at first. Sarah used to love being rubbed by our feet, but Shadow was frightened if our feet came near him. If I came upon him suddenly, he would run away until he realized who I was. For a while I was careful to speak to him in a higher voice, since low pitched voices also frightened him. And whenever we got out a suitcase, he would sit in it and purr desperately, the way cats sometimes do when you take them to the vet or when they are being threatened. This is how we know what his former life was like.
We have other cats, but Shadow was the top cat until the end. Even after he was nearly hit by a car and lost an eye, he still somehow retained his dominance. Even after his kidneys started failing and he started getting thin, despite everything we could do. Over the weekend, Diane said to me “it’s this week”. Maybe we left it too long, but he was still responding to us and when I cuddled him in my arms he would still purr, though I could barely hear it. Today, he seemed hardly able to stand, so we knew the time was now. It’s a sad time, but we knew when we adopted him that this day would come. He had a wonderful life in the meantime – and we are happy to have shared that life.
Shadow is survived by Larry, Diane, David, Thomas, and his fellow cats Sebastian, Sagira, Waddlebug, and Zhen Yi.
Shadow in a bowl