It has been a year on Oct. 31st since my best cat ever, my cat soulmate, Smoky, died at age 12. I still miss him terribly. I meant to do this retrospective post last winter and simply could not. Now, on the anniversary of his death, it seems time, no matter how heart-wrenching it is, to honor him with these photos over the course of four days. Our regular blog topics (Halloween 2018!) will return on November 2.
I know these posts are ridiculously long and may be hard to load, for which I apologize. I need to do this and I need to do it in just this way.
2012
Terry, a Vietnam vet down on his luck, lived in the RV park next door to us in our former house behind the Ilwaco boatyard. He used to walk his two very old dogs by our house. Once we helped him take his young cat, Frosty, to the vet. In January of 2012, he went into a hospital two hours away, with a diagnosis of lung cancer, and asked us to take in his three cats, Mary (the mother, age 10) and her two sons, the brothers Frosty and Smoky, age 7.
Allan and a friend who worked at the humane society went into his old motor home to fetch the cats. They found the cats with no litter box, up on the bed to get away from their droppings. They had rarely been let outside that old, moldy, cigarette smoke filled motor home and quite possibly had lived in there for seven years. Terry had adopted Mary when she had just had the two kittens. They were loved and doted on, but their lives were small.
When they came to us, we had only two cats, the jet black and very shy Calvin, age 7, who we had been caring for since August 2011 and who had then became ours, and Maddy, an old and cranky black and white cat who I’d had for years. My beloved Dumbles had died early in the winter of some sort of brain seizure.
At our house, we kept Frosty, Smoky, and Mary in the big bathroom for a week to acclimate them to their new home.
Mary and Smoky hid in the closet for awhile. 1-21-12
I did not quite know what to make of Smoky. He was so quiet and looked so plain to me, and he did not purr when petted. On the phone, Terry told us “Smoky never purrs, Frosty is the lover.”
Smoky and Frosty, 2-2-12, still in the closet
Mary and Smoky, 2-2-12
2-13-12, out of the closet
The cats seemed to love running through the house, so much larger than their motor home. One scary afternoon early on, they got out of an accidentally opened window and I thought they would have hightailed it the ten blocks back to the RV park, but they were waiting outside and agreed to be picked up and brought back in. Soon, we let them go outside. They had to use the back cat door because Maddy guarded the front one for her own exclusive use. Maddy hated all other cats. She was with us for the first year that we added this new batch, and she died at about age 15 late in the year.
2-14-12, out the back cat door!
Allan’s photo
Smoky and Mary, 2-18-12
Soon after going outside, Smoky began sitting on my lap and he began to purr. We just had time to tell Terry on the phone that Smoky was purring before Terry died.
3-13-12, Calvin and Smoky had become friends.
Mary and Smoky, 3-30-12
Smoky had the softest fur I have ever felt on a cat, even softer than soft cats of my memory.
Mary and Smoky, 4-3-12
Mary and Smoky, 6-17-12
Smoky and Mary, 6-17-12
I have only one more photo for 2012 due to a computer crash.
12-18-12, helping to wrap Christmas presents
Sometime over the course of the year, Smoky bonded with me more than the other three also very sweet and affectionate cats.
2013
2-4-13
Mary and Smoky, 2-4-13
Smoky and Mary, 2-7-13
Frosty, Smoky, Mary 2-19-13
2-19-13, at our new water boxes
Smoky and Mary, 3-19-13
the family, 3-24-13
Frosty and Smoky, 5-7-13
the softest, 5-15-13
5-26-13
Mary and Smoky, 6-30-13
Smoky loved a campfire and often sat at the campfire circle, seeming to hope for one. 6-30-13
7-6-13
Imagine enjoying the garden life after having been indoors in a small space for 7 years.
7-7-13
7-10-13
8-9-13
9-1-13, with his Birds Be Safe collar
9-1-13
9-21-13
campfire evening, 9-21-13
9-27-13
10-2-13, with Calvin in the bogsy wood
10-4-13; He loved to lie around on the warm driveway at the Nora house next door.
10-6-13
11-20-13
11-20-13, Smoky and Mary
11-21-13
11-27-13
12-6-13
12-6-13
12-8-13, with a Joey Ramone doll made for me by Montana Mary
12-13-13
12-23-13
12-31-13
2014
1-20-14, a rambunctious young dog came to visit
1-20-14, with Frosty
1-27-14
1-30-14; poor Frosty was not as popular with his mother Mary.
1-30-14
2-22-14
3-18-14
3-21-14
4-5-14
4-6-14
4-19-14 on the front porch
4-25-14
4-27-14
4-29-14, all four cats on the Nora house driveway
5-24-14
When I would come home from work and go out into the garden, I’d hear a distinctive series of little meows and Smoky would emerge from a garden bed to greet me.
5-31-14
6-1-14
6-28-14, all four
6-28-14
7-14-14
7-17-14
7-25-14
8-16-14
9-2-14
9-12-14
9-23-14
10-13-14
10-13-14
11-1-14
11-19-14
12-9-14
12-9-14
Staycation with Smoky was heavenly. He appeared to sit on my lap the moment I would sit down and he settled in with no squirming or fussing.
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Tangly Cottage Gardening 