January 10,
1984 - August
5, 1997
I
have always had a cat in my life. However when my father , who was in the
Army, was assigned to duty at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, West Germany
we decided to leave our two indoor outdoor cats in the States because we
would be living in an apartment. After a while I started to miss having
a cat around and started to beg my parents for one. They finally gave in
and two days after my tenth birthday Miss Artiee an adult friend of mine
from the church we attended came over to give me my present from her. She
handed me a small, cylindrical shaped object. I thought that it was a decorative
candle, instead it was four cans of cat food. Perplexed I looked up at
her and smiling she said "Go look in the stairwell."
I
ran to the door and there, sitting on the landing below, in a wicker basket
, was the cat that would become Muffin. I brought him in and let him out,
he was a beautiful orange and white cat. I hugged Miss Artiee and my Mom
and then promptly named him Muffin, because I had always wanted a cat with
that name. He was rescued from a German shelter and was about a year old.
His "date of birth" is the day I got him plus his estimated birth year.
I got him on January 10, 1985.
Muffin
quickly learned that I was his person and a strong bond developed between
us. When ever I was upset he would try to comfort me by rubbing up against
me. And he liked to stay in my room. He would trade off sleeping in my
bed with my parents bed and the living room. This pattern continued on
to everywhere we moved to, which was , in order: from Germany to Fort Bragg,
NC, to Walnut Ridge, AR, to Seoul, Korea, back to Walnut Ridge, then to
Powhatan, AR a brief stay in Searcy, AR , and finally to Winston-Salem,
NC.
This is my senior picture.
Throughout
all this Muffin lived a kind of blessed life. While in Germany he fell
out of one our windows. We lived on the third floor and he was sitting
in a cement flower pot at the time. He was totally unharmed. We didn't
even know what had happened until we opened the front door and he ran in.
We found out about the flower pot while trying to find out how he got out.
It was smashed up under the one window that didn't have a screen. While
in North Carolina for the first time he got trapped under a neighbors house
for a week, and except for being hungry he was fine.
His
most harrowing adventure happened in Korea. On the night of March 16,
1991, he got out. I remember the date
because that was also the night of the base school's spring ball and my
date was my future exhusband. Muffin had gotten out before so I didn't
worry much, he normally came back the next morning. This time he didn't.
He was missing for about six weeks. For some reason I maintained the belief
that he would come back. That faith paid off. On April
29, my first day back at school after
attending an honor choir in Okinawa, Japan for the previous week our neighbors
came over and said that they thought they had our cat in their house.
Now
our house and our neighbors houses weren't next to each other they shared
an inner wall and both had fire places that shared the same flew. They
had been away on temporary duty for most of the time that Muffin was missing.
They had come home that weekend and on monday morning there house boy had
opened up the fire place and a live animal fell out of it. This happened
before I had left for school. I went over and the animal came straight
to me. It was Muffin! He was filthy and
hungry. While I went to school happier than I had been in the past few
weeks, my Mom took him to the base vet. The verdict was not good. He had
been eating creosote; that
black stuff in that builds up in chimneys and had poisoned his liver.
He
stayed at the vets for a week or so. I visited him every chance I could.
He always perked up when he saw me. The vet said that there was a chance
that he would make it if he was given the right care. He also said that
being home would be best for him. So we brought him home. He was skinny,
lost a lot of his fur and suffered from seizures. He over came all of it
so well that when we brought him back for the pre leaving check up the
vets could hardly believe that it was the same cat!
After
my father retired we moved to Arkansas so that my father could care for
his ailing parents. I graduated from the same High School that they had
and then went on to attend Harding University in Searcy Ar as a drama major.
Muffin stayed with my parents. After a bit at Harding (didn't graduate
yet) I moved out to Winston-Salem, NC with my then husband Toby. Manly
because the job market in Searcy was next to none. So me, Toby, Bunnicula
(who we had gotten while still at Harding so I could have a pet but
they wouldn't allow non cadged animals in the apartments) and Muffin all
moved once again.
We
got settled in and after a few brief spats with the cat who "came with
the house " Henry, all seemed to be going well. Then a week after I returned
to Arkansas for my sister's wedding in July, I noticed that Muffin was
not acting right. He wasn't eating and his stomach wa swelled up. A friend
took him to the vet while I suffered through work. then Toby came
by and spoke to my boss. Then he came to me. Muffin had Feline Infectious
Peritonitis (FIP). FIP is an incurable, deadly illness that only recently
has had a vaccine for it. The only humane thing to do was to put him down
because he was in great pain that would only get worse. Toby called his
sister Beth to come take me to the vet. He stayed and finished my shift
and then started his own (we worked at the same place). I spent a few minuets
alone with Muffin telling him how much I loved him and what was going to
happen to him. Then I called the vet in to deliver the shot. I stayed with
him till he left me for good. It took a little longer than normal. I like
to think that he was fighting the shot to stay with me. I don't think he
wanted to leave me.
As
we lived in the country the vet prepared him for a home burial. I made
him a small and very crude casket painted it white and lined it with an
old but pretty curtain. Toby dug a hole in the back yard under a dogwood
tree. After saying good bye one last time I placed him in his casket along
with a few favorite toys. We then buried him. During all this I played
the Jellical Ball, Memory , Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, and Pie
Jesu. After he was buried I placed a white cross to mark his grave and
hung on it what had been my matron of honor's bouquet on it. and then just
stood there and cried.
After
having a pet for as many years as I had Muffin (14),
I didn't just lose a pet, I lost a part of me. Muffin was not just a mere
pet , he was a best friend/sibling/child
all rolled in to one small furry creature. There were time when it felt
like he was my only friend. He was always there for me, not caring about
anything but me. I loved him so much. I still love him. And I thank God
very much for blessing my life with him.
"I know a bank where the wild
thyme blows,
where oxlips and the nodding
violet grows,
Quite over canopied with luscious
woodbine,
with sweet musk roses and with
eglantine..."
Shakespeare "A Midsummer's night
dream"
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The music on this page is
"Memory" from his play CATS.
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