... The summer breeze caressed his whiskers one final time as the room window was open. He was two or three years older than the Internet. Amazing how long a cat with some burmese genes can live. Always unassuming about his influence, yet commanding by his presence, he was a great antidote for my intense personality and mood swings. He taught me how to calm down and he trained me well.
Whitestone, New York, love at first sight in 1993. Love between him and a can of Friskies! He was starving when I met him. He tried to open the can I brought out of the market with his paws and his teeth! Could not take him inside the store. They could have said I was stealing the can but I wanted to make sure he was outside where I left him. He doubted me (bad experience with humans) but he waited. Neutered already, he must have escaped, or somebody had abandoned him that freezing night. I had to fix the problem. The pizza store he was trying to move in was kicking him out closing the door behind him. He looked through the glass and then he walked to the next door wall to wall, with the grace of a tiny panther. Kind of hard to imagine how he had managed to be alone or whether he would have survived...
We met our first challenge, a tough landlord. But he won him over in no time. He called him "Markos" for the band of white hair on his throat. Markos was he.
I cannot complain. I was lucky to have a cat that lived to be about 21 years old, over 20 years with me. That is around 120 human years. They say that all God's creatures have an internal clock of about one billion heartbeats before they expire. Cats' hearts beat faster than humans'. He certainly used all his beats up and then some more. Perhaps he took some from me. But my life was a check that would have remained uncashed had I not met Markie. I would have given him as many heartbeats as he needed to be with me one more night, every night.
An Orthodox Christian told me cats do not have souls. Today I became a Catholic.
To the last minute he looked at me every time I laid next to him. Fortunately, his body failed him but on his final two days only. To the end, he was so amazing and well mannered. He refused to pee on his blanket while he was sick. He tried to make it to his box but he could not. He finally used the floor as I helped him stand on his feet. I think that happened yesterday or the day before. And not on the carpet! Was he able to tell the difference? Probably, I think because he tried to make it to the naked wooden floor.
I finally realized why he always remained away from me in the living room at night as he kept looking at me today: he guarded the house! He always faced the entrance at night, except in the very cold nights when he needed warmth! Anyway, burglaries go down in the winter. He knew.
He left me when I walked out of the room for a few minutes and I'll blame myself for it. I came back to find him not breathing. I believe staying in the room with him had prolonged his life until breathing had become painful. He was twitching a lot. Perhaps it was best that I gave him a chance. It did not last long, perhaps an hour or two. Less than a day in cat time. And fortunately, he seemed to recognize me to the end.
Markie my little brother, I am with you. And thank you for twenty-one wonderful years. Truth, you did not give me much. But from the first day you gave me what I needed and I needed to stay alive. I needed two cooper-yellowish eyes and a black tail with a kink at its tip. Nothing more, nothing less. I am so blessed and I wish you "kalo taksithi."
Love at first sight forever. I love you.
:*(
This is his final picture. You can see the distinctive color of Markie's eyes.
τό διάβασα ΕΔΩ : Mitch
https://www.facebook.com/greek.mitch.1
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