The End of an Era

I am gutted this morning. Yesterday we had to put Leon to sleep, after having to do the same to Rascal about 10 weeks ago. Yesterday at this time I was petting him. Now he is gone.

He was a darling cat, though he spent the first half of his life being super shy. Of course we could never figure out why. Up until Natalie went off to college, Graham and I were only able to pet him very rarely. Even if I tiptoed across the room towards him as lightly as I could, he'd tense up and then take evasive action. Natalie had gained his trust and he would come out at about 10pm when Mary was sitting in her chair and demand attention from her. Beyond that, he was a ghost. So much so that Graham's friend Ronen, who had hung out with Rascal plenty but never Leon, declared that Leon was a myth.

When Natalie left he realized that if he wanted attention he'd better take it where it was offered, so we developed a very good relationship. He spent a lot of time next to me on the couch being petted. Though even there he had the annoying habit of setting up on the couch six inches too far away so I had to strain a little to pet him. He very much liked being pet on the belly and would use one of his paws to hold my hand in place while this was going on, as shown in the photo below.

He also liked to sit on his sister Rascal, as shown below.

He was the softest cat ever, and he had the most expressive and graceful tail wag when someone was giving him some love. Natalie (thank God Natalie and Mary are better photo takers than I am!) has a video of it on her Instagram. Somehow I never thought to take video.

While Mary was taking him to the vet for the last time it occurred to me that we have never been together without some kind of small creature to tend to. When we got together in 1995 Mary had Story, a rambunctious mix of collie and shepherd ill-suited for residence in a West Village studio who, as a two-year old, considered it absolutely reasonable to stick his nose in for some action the very first time Mary and I kissed. In 2000 Natalie was born. In 2003 Graham joined the family. In 2009-10 we got Rascal and Leon. Mary and I have never lived all alone. 

Predictably, this changed dynamic came to a head last night in the process of fixing dinner when small sparks flew around food preparation/dishwasher-related issues. We got through it. We have learning to do. We can also go on trips now without thinking about finding somebody to stop by to do cat-related tasks.

We started the process of removing some cat-related stuff from the household yesterday, but not all of it. This weekend I will make space in the basement to store the stuff together. I am not getting rid of it just yet.