Suki, Circa 1987-2007

Thank you for the 17 wonderful years you gave us. We don’t know what you did with your first three, except that you were spayed, and were terrified of small children. We guessed that you swatted one who was torturing you and your family dumped you. It was their loss. You were shy and coy when you came. You made us laugh when you rubbed Reggie’s nose in his food. You turned into a fierce hunter and fighter. You were also a wonderful healer, trickster, and loyal companion. Here's your story according to Barbara whom you called Barbar:
We've always called Suki our "Cosmic" cat. When we moved to the lake in August of 1990 we decided we would like another cat so that our cat Reggie would have a companion. Besides, the place was like a piece of cat heaven, complete with a catwalk, critters, trees to climb and fish in the lake. I loved our friends' Siamese cat and sometime in the fall decided that was what we would look for. Within a few weeks this part-Siamese or Burmese mix turned up in our driveway (literally the end of the road), wanting us to befriend her but afraid just the same. We named her "Suki" because we thought she should have an Asian name to go with her looks. Ironically we later discovered that was the last name of one of our neighbors, just spelled differently. It still makes me smile imagining what they thought if they heard us yelling their name when we were trying to locate our cat.
The following January I was in my last semester of law school and Suki would often lie across my lap while I studied. One day I felt a lump in my lower abdomen. I felt sure it was a recurrence of endometriosis and decided I didn't have time to deal with it until school was out. Within a few weeks we discovered a growth on Suki's stomach almost exactly the same shape and size as the one I had and exactly where her stomach touched mine. The miracle of it was that my lump had disappeared and didn't return for over a year and a half. It's still hard for me to dismiss her turning up like she did and the tumor transfer as mere coincidences.
Sometime later she got caught under the garage door as I was trying to open it with the remote. The door kept rebounding up and down off her back as I panicked trying to stop it, like some funny but horrible thing you'd see on "America's Funniest Pets." Amazingly she was unhurt physically but it gave her another reason not to trust humans and their machines. After that and my taking her to the vet to have the lump removed she didn't want much to do with me. Jim became her favorite and she would follow him around like a lovesick teenager and spend as much as a half-hour grooming the hair on his head while he watched TV. She also loved to bury her head in his shoes and smell the the nasty things. After a few minutes she would look up crossed-eyed like she was intoxicated from an overdose of catnip.
She was terrified of the vacuum cleaner and for many years any of our visitors -- so the housekeeper was a double-whammy for her. Her favorite hiding place was the lower corner cabinet in the kitchen. She figured out how to get it open with her paw (the only one of our cats that has ever done that) and would make a dash for it anytime she felt threatened.
Life with Suki has been a lesson in patience and acceptance. She was often pissy and unpredictable. One minute she's let you wrap her around your neck like a fur stole and the next minute she might swat your hand if you didn't figure out she'd had enough, sometimes leaving you lacerated. She only barely tolerated the other cats and refused to cede any ground to them, except for fearless (brain-damaged) Luna who never figured our she was supposed to be terrified. She also got her bluff in on the two dogs we used to have by lacerating their noses. Suki was the Queen-Bee-800-Pound-Gorilla-Alpha-Female Cat in the house. She hated and fought with raccoons, but tolerated possums. She loved to hunt at night when the moon was out and she's probably the reason we saw few snakes or mice around the place.
She mellowed in later years and we made our peace and had many good talks. She eventually established a relatively peaceful co-existence with the other cats and even began to tolerate visiting dogs and children. I've never had a pet this many years -- almost a third of my life. I began to think that she might go on forever and now that I know she's not I can't imagine life without her.
So goodbye old friend. You made us laugh, cry, love and grow. Thank you for all the memories. Today your spirit returns to the Cosmos having enriched our lives like the best friends do.