Monday, May 16, 2005
Bones
I buried Bones today. He was the family cat.
Before Bones came to be our cat he belonged to a neighbor in Lake Charles. Some time before we moved to Lake Charles, Bones had abandoned his original host family and become the neighborhood cat. That's how he came to be called "Bones". He and another cat used to go from house to house for their meals. They came to be called the Bones Brothers because they often got table scraps, or "bones".
We moved into the neighborhood in 1990. Some time after that Bones decided that he would live at our house. By that time the Bones Brothers were no more. There was just Bones. All 18 pounds of him. He had a belly but mostly he was just big.
Bones was very active in the time we lived in Lake Charles. We often found bird or squirrel remains in the yard.
By the time we left Lake Charles, Bones had started to lose his sight. He was still very active and healthy but we no longer found bird or squirrel remains.
He seemed to like rural life in Grand Coteau. He could still jump the fence and he still liked to roam the neighborhood but we kept him in at night out of concern for his well being.
He would usually show up on the porch around midnight and I would have to pick him up to get him in. He usually wouldn't come in on his own but he would often purr when I picked him up. He didn't like being picked up when he was younger.
Last night he showed up early and walked in as soon as I opened the door. Some time during the night he jumped up on the couch where I had fallen asleep and got right in my face. This was an annoying habit of his. It's my last living memory of him.
My wife found him this afternoon when she got home from school. He was on the deck. He looked like he had fallen asleep sunning. We think he was 18 or 19 years old.
We buried him in the yard near the bench on which he liked to lounge. The bench is covered in his scratch marks. He had put his first mark on it many years before when we still lived in Lake Charles. I'm gonna miss him.
Before Bones came to be our cat he belonged to a neighbor in Lake Charles. Some time before we moved to Lake Charles, Bones had abandoned his original host family and become the neighborhood cat. That's how he came to be called "Bones". He and another cat used to go from house to house for their meals. They came to be called the Bones Brothers because they often got table scraps, or "bones".
We moved into the neighborhood in 1990. Some time after that Bones decided that he would live at our house. By that time the Bones Brothers were no more. There was just Bones. All 18 pounds of him. He had a belly but mostly he was just big.
Bones was very active in the time we lived in Lake Charles. We often found bird or squirrel remains in the yard.
By the time we left Lake Charles, Bones had started to lose his sight. He was still very active and healthy but we no longer found bird or squirrel remains.
He seemed to like rural life in Grand Coteau. He could still jump the fence and he still liked to roam the neighborhood but we kept him in at night out of concern for his well being.
He would usually show up on the porch around midnight and I would have to pick him up to get him in. He usually wouldn't come in on his own but he would often purr when I picked him up. He didn't like being picked up when he was younger.
Last night he showed up early and walked in as soon as I opened the door. Some time during the night he jumped up on the couch where I had fallen asleep and got right in my face. This was an annoying habit of his. It's my last living memory of him.
My wife found him this afternoon when she got home from school. He was on the deck. He looked like he had fallen asleep sunning. We think he was 18 or 19 years old.
We buried him in the yard near the bench on which he liked to lounge. The bench is covered in his scratch marks. He had put his first mark on it many years before when we still lived in Lake Charles. I'm gonna miss him.
