Sable
On and off for the last 24 hours or so I’ve been looking at pictures of you.
There are photos of your head poking out of gym bags, standing proud atop a stereo speaker, sniffing around sports trophies I’ve won, sitting on Sarah’s gis, curled up in a bathtub, hiding out in an old refrigerator. These are just the novelty shots. In-the-moment attempts to capture the wonderfully silly thing that your badass, smart, beautiful, amazing black cat-ness got up to.
I have a lot of these photos. But right now they don’t feel quite enough. That’s because yesterday I made “the call.”
And today has been my last day with you, one of the truest friends I’ve ever known.
For 21 years you’ve has been my constant companion and one of my greatest joys. The price for your companionship was low. Some food, water, a few cardboard boxes and a willingness to drop everything to pet or comb you was all you asked. In return, I received a loyalty so fierce it’d make Bast shudder.
Outsiders probably won’t believe this. It took years for Sarah to finally win your affections, hard-fought and after actual bloodshed. You also had a well-earned reputation of hissing, clawing and screeching at strangers, which certainly narrowed down our social visitors to only the bravest of brave.
That all said, and I’m hesitant to be too anthropomorphist, but you were a deeply loving animal. What outsiders never saw was the cat who’d greet me at the door every time I returned home. Or who’d slide close by my desk and then sit and stare, patiently waiting for an acknowledgment, maybe an ear scratch or a walk around the apartment.
These moments were almost always accompanied by deep, hearty purring. I know cats purr for a number of reasons beyond just “I’m happy,” but I’ve got to believe that was a large part of it. And if I’m being selfish about it, your purrs did as much to soothe my troubles as anything else. Simply, my world was better with you in it and I’m going to miss you forever.
23 things Sable really liked:
* bacon
* Banh Mi Boys’ fried chicken bao
* regular potato chips
* tissue paper
* pizza boxes
* Vachon caramel cakes
* cardboard boxes
* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
* the old WWE knapsack she’d sit on by the couch when she got too old and immobile to jump on said couch
* searching the apartment for dust bunnies after she puked
* sitting beside her humans
* the apartment hallway
* open doors in the apartment hallway
* nuzzling hockey skates
* strong sunbeams
* sitting on dirty laundry
* sitting on warm, clean laundry
* scratching my face while I slept
* being combed
* Pillsbury crescent rolls
* waking humans up at 5:30 a.m.
* the sheer joy of humans being up at 5:30 a.m.
* knowing where her humans were
Risky Fuel 