I think that I'm hopelessly nostalgic, sometimes even to the point of maudlin sentimentality. A bit of that was triggered by two events last week. The first was a Facebook memory from two years ago that showed a picture of Grendel, Rhiannon, and Maebh milling about in the sunshine near the big sliding glass door. The second was hearing the song Old Days by Chicago play on Pandora. One verse particularly stood out:
Take me back
To the world gone away
Memories
Seem like yesterday
The ten years when I shared a home with those three were some of the best years I've ever known. It saddens me to think that it's now a world gone away, never to return.
Maebh's recent dental adventure wasn't anything life threatening for her (though my wallet is still recovering). However, she's 14. Rhiannon is 17. In cat years, they're getting ancient. Maebh is still pretty spry; Rhiannon is definitely showing her years and getting fatter to boot.
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| The Golden Girls |
Back in the day, my lounging around the house (as one does), had a magnetic affect on the cats. They'd gravitate to me or to each other near me. Life was a movable cat puddle.
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| Creating permanent dimples in the couch |
We're less cohesive now. Maebh still considers me furniture the minute I sit. Even when I'm upright, she bullies me into to sitting in the recliner so she can sit on me. It's nice to be wanted, even if only for my ample lap. Rhiannon used to prefer sitting either on my right (before we both got too fat for her to fit between me and the arm of the recliner) or nestled between my legs. Not so much now that it's harder for her to jump up on the furniture. I have a step thingy that she can use to get onto the couch and thence onto me, but now she finds it too roundabout. Plus, I think she gets confused about how to get up there. She's always been kind of stupid (sweetly so), now she's also senile.
Grendel picked me out in July 2006, I picked out Rhiannon in August 2006. Maebh joined the tribe in March 2007. We were four. They were all younger then and more open to new relationships. Despite a spat here and there between Grendel and Rhiannon, the cats were often bundled together with or without me. They were a happy little clowder, a few contretemps notwithstanding.
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| The movable clowder |
These days, Bogart is the only youngster (with all of youth's annoying unbridled enthusiasms) and the old girls are adamant in ostracizing him from their tribe. I hoped I could keep the show going by introducing a new cast member for an existing role, like the way Dick Sergeant replaced Dick York on Bewitched and nobody noticed. But Maebh noticed and after 18 months I'm resigned to her hatred of Bogart being implacable.
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| Bring me the head of Bogart the Cow Cat |
We're like Cyprus now. The invading Turk (Bogart) has his own territory and the Greeks (Rhiannon and Maebh) have theirs. I'm the hapless schmo with a foot in each warring camp. All I need is a baby blue helmet. Any attempt to get them to mingle turns into a Sharks v. Jets rumble and Tony (Maebh) inevitably shivs Bernardo (Bogart). Even with only one remaining canine, I assume her bite to be still formidable and abscess inducing.
We've reached a modus vivendi, but it's not without inconvenience. My lounging moments can't exert the gravitational pull that drew all the munchkins together to me. I miss that.
The girls will die eventually. I hope not for a long time, even though that means Stately Chez Dave will remain an indefinite Cyprus. When they go, Bogart will have an unrestricted run of a lonelier house.
I'll be wary of bringing a new cat (or cats) in after the girls go. Bogart seemed to do well in community in the shelter before I adopted him, but he's aggressive with Maebh, who does not respond well to his attention. I long for a harmonious home without Iron Curtains and Checkpoint Charlies to keep the cat population apart.
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| Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie |
With Bogart, I tried to extend or re-boot the bliss of my three-cat household. It didn't work. I don't want to repeat that disappointment, so I assume that Bogey will be my last cat. But who knows?
I'm not really a cat person, but I can relate to this post - the same kind of things have happens with various groups of friends here in the Japan ex-pat scene. People arrive, fit in, and then over time little schisms appear. Some people leave, some remain; some stay the same, some change. Some remain friends, some cut off contact. So you look back on particular moments (often brought up by photos, or when you run into someone you haven't seen for a while and chew the fat at bit) and think 'man, that was a good time' but often you don't really notice how good it was until it's gone.
ReplyDeleteSo I share a bit of your sentimentality, even if the exact circumstances are a little different!
Cheers,
Aaron
Animals - they steal your heart !
ReplyDeleteMaybe adopting a kitten would work?
ReplyDeleteI've thought I might, but only after the old girls are gone. That might be years from now.
DeleteThey really do make a house feel like a home. I know we will be struggling with this in just a few years. Our "youngster" is 12, and she's already getting arthritic.
ReplyDeleteOnly recently found your blog - has my two favourite things!
ReplyDeleteI understand your worries about getting a harmonious house when the older two pass on. It should be ok though, especially if you get kittens. Bogart would be old enough to accept them, but not too old that he'd get cranky!
I have two ex-ferals I got as kittens, so was fortunately able to encourage them out of most of their maladaptive behaviours! So I completely understand how you feel.