Lost in dreams you lay beside me
in slumber of peace and trust
Together we watch the morning grow,
with coffee and closeness
As the day ends
with the dying light and the struggle of the roads
you welcome me home with eagerness
What gift can life offer
greater than your warmth
gentler than your purr
What tenderness is there sweeter than the love in your eyes
Shadow was a perpetual kitten.
He managed to end up with me sort of by accident (at least from my perspective). You see, his mother's owners were out of town, so we were dropping by to feed the mama-cat and check on the kittens. All of the kittens were claimed at this point -- except for Shadow.
He slipped past my best, stonewalled defenses by coming up while I was talking with someone (a neighbor?), and curling up on top of my shoe and falling asleep. Well, I wasn't immediately committed to taking him home, but there was no way in hell that he was going to the pound.
Somehow, he doesn't seem to appreciate how lucky he is (cats!).
As you might guess from the name (even if you have images turned off in your browser), Shadow is a black cat (with the requisite white tag on the collarbone). He arrived with some less enlightened name, like "darkie" or "blackie," so a quest for a new name started. But he soon exhibited a tendency to hang around the shadows of rooms which had the lights off, so the new name seemed perfect.
He later added meaning by gaining a habit of following closely (too closely) when I do things. So, it is "me and my shadow," but it gets him stepped on on occasion.
The rest, as they say, is history. (Just who are "they" anyway?)
When Shadow was 13, he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, along with a heart murmur and a few signs of kidney and liver dysfunction.
One afternoon (16 October 2000), after many evenings of trying not to come back into the house, he went out for a walk, and never came back. He was always delightfully stubborn and he seems to have found a place to curl up that no one would find him.
I home he knows that he is missed, but he did a lot to earn a good rest.
drew@furrfu.com