Charlie

I'm missing Charlie. 

I didn't think through how long I would shed tears for the little guy who was in my life for so long. I didn't know tears would well up almost every day after 2 months. I guess it only makes sense. So as a catharsis, here are the things that I'm really missing this week...

...the way he wanted me to rub right on his closed eyes and on the bridge of his nose. He would push so hard against my rubbing fingers that he would lift himself off his front legs.

...his snuggliness. I could hardly sit for 1 minute without him coming and asking for lap time. I spent nary an evening without him on my lap. I miss the presence of his warm body and soft fur!

...his crazy hoarse voice greeting me. His greetings in general. Until the last year or so of his life when he was feeling old and going deaf, he greeted me at the front door every time I came in. 

...his graceful and elegant presence. As opposed to Egg who is adorable, but goofy and silly. Definitely not elegant.

Note the silly look on his face! Makes me smile, though...

I guess that's enough of a list. It's a gray day here, so I think my heart is reflecting it. That and last night I woke up once and out of the corner of my eye, and for just a split-second, thought it was Charlie lying on the bed. Boo...

Last of the Charlie Chronicles

Don't worry, the old guy hasn't kicked the bucket - I just thought I might blog about other things. :-) But before I get on with that, a few more tales about this crazy guy. First of all, what kind of cat actually likes their Halloween costume? Note how happily he is sleeping! :-)

Ever known a cat that liked to play hide and seek? Well, Charlie did, and he had more than one version of the game he liked! In the townhouse in which we lived there was a small landing on the stairs. The wall facing this landing had a small archway that linked the living room and the stairwell, meaning you could stand on the stairs and look into the living room, and vice versa. Charlie loved to sit in this archway - it was just the right size for him. He'd sit there, and if we'd indulge him, he'd act as if we couldn't see him and as we walked by, or twitched a string his way, or stood at the bottom of the stairs crouching, he'd reciprocate with lively play! 

His other favorite version of hide and seek was on top of the tall bookshelves in our upstairs hallway, or on top of the Hoosier cabinet, or the fridge, or anywhere else he could get higher than the tops of our heads. There he'd crouch, waiting for us to walk by, and as we did he'd reach out and tickle the tops of our heads with varying degrees of ferocity. If we made just the right "I'm about to chase you!" movements, he'd run up the stairs, jump on top of the shelves, and we'd follow and play our game. Quite unusual, strange...and wonderful!

Now that Charlie is 18 and all he does is sleep (eat and poop), it is sometimes hard to imagine how playful, how creative, and just how lively he was. Sometimes he's been a hassle. He went through an, "I am a fierce animal and will try to make you bleed by attacking you when you least expect it!" phase, attacking for no good reason, hiding behind chairs, etc. He also, at one point in his life, got seizures brought on by the stress of me travelling a lot. Yes, high maintenance cat! We have, however, had some wonderful times with this old guy. Oh, how we would laugh and play, running up and down the stairs, chasing each other, usually ending with a jump onto the bed and a good snuggle. I've had him almost as long as I've had my husband, and that's saying something!

Charlie, I do love you!

More Charlie Foolishness

Remember the boxes Coke cans used to come in - more square than long and skinny? Charlie loved those things. As soon as one was empty, he'd gingerly step in, head first, squirm his body fully in, gently turn around, then sit there, just his head poking out, meowing, purring, talking to us. He loved it!

In fact, he loves being in things. We had one of those 3-tiered, wire hanging baskets in our kitchen, and he quickly

 found how to climb into them from the kitchen counter. He liked to just sit there hanging and swinging while I cooked. Sometimes I'd come home from work and he'd be in there waiting. As he grew into a full-sized cat, those baskets became too small to his great sadness! He still tried until he was a couple of years old, but he just couldn't get comfortable!

Boxes, baskets, plastic and paper bags! All his playthings. This one you probably won't believe.... He used to purposefully put his head through one handle of a plastic grocery bag, then run through the house, bag "chasing" him, turn and attack it, and do it again until that bag was just shreds! Hard to believe...but true!

And if he saw me sitting after dinner with an apron on, he'd come rub on our legs. I'd take that apron off, tie the strings around his neck, then walk around the house, holding him stretched out above us, the apron looking like a superman cape on Charlie's back . No picture of that either! So silly - he'd be purring this whole time and when we set him down, would come rubbing on our legs again. "Supercat!" Pure foolishness!

We had an old, glass water cooler jar that he loved to sit in. We'd spin it while he was inside and you could hear his purring echoing in the jar. If he heard us putting the jar on its side, he'd run over so he could get in it. Sometimes he'd just make himself comfortable and take a little nap in there. 

One summer I had a bunch of empty boxes in my spare bedroom. Charlie found the one that got the most sunlight on it during the day and would sleep in there for hours. We called it his "Choven." Get it? So silly!

Fun and Games

Little did we know when we fell in love with Charlie that we were getting almost as much dog as cat. He had some very unusual behaviors for a feline. 

He greeted us at the door when we came home from work, chatting and telling us all about his day. He was insistent for love! He still does this, although now he sleeps so deeply it sometimes takes him a while to figure out I've gotten home. (Now, in his old age, if I sit down on the couch for even a minute, if he's in the room he comes over and tries to get on my lap. This guy is VERY affectionate...in his own, insistent way.)

We discovered through just daily living that one of his favorite toys was a ball of wadded up paper. Ok, so lots of cats play with balls of paper - just wait till you hear the whole tale! When Charlie would hear us wadding up paper, he'd come crouch a few feet in front of us, his hind quarters twitching just waiting for us to throw it. We lived in an old townhouse (1920s) that was long and narrow. We'd sit at one end with the ball of paper and he'd go wait at the other end of the room. We'd throw that ball of paper and he'd chase after it, and bring it back to us to do again! Soon Charlie and we discovered that if he sat half way down the long room, and we threw the ball high into the air, he'd jump up and catch it. We couldn't believe it! Six, seven foot jumps, and he'd land with that ball of paper in his mouth. It was sight to see - how do we have no pictures of that!?

If we left a glass with a straw in it overnight, when we got up in the morning two things were bound to be true - the glass would be overturned and the straw would be gone. We quickly learned two things from this (and the overturned vases of flowers) - Charlie wanted to play with the water, and he desperately wanted those straws! He'd attack them, push them under the rugs then "find" them again, carry them all around the house, bring them to us for us to play with him. Every time we swept under the fridge or looked under our rugs there were straws - many straws!! I don't think I threw away a straw in 5 years without it being filled with tiny holes!

Ahh, good times!

Into Our Hearts

And so we took this little guy into our brand new family, and he became a part of us. After 17 years, I think I can honestly say he's a part of our marriage. When he dies we'll miss him a ton! He's been a crazy cat.

Charlie quickly made himself at home. He decided he could hunt quite well from the various windows in our house, and loved to perch anywhere he could get a good view. The birds in the yard, squirrels, even leaves blowing in the wind provided him with hours of entertainment while Tim and I were at work. 

His love of dogs began early, thanks to my neighbor's dog, Heinz, who was a frequent visitor in our house. It wasn't unusual for us to see Heinz and Charlie playing, snuggling, entertaining one another as Shannon and I hung out. To this day Charlie loves dogs - the bigger the better. Sometimes when he hears my neighbor's dog Duke (a large Husky-Malamute mix) out in the yard (you can hear his collar tags clinking), Charlie goes to the door to greet Duke. If I open the front door, Charlie will sit there until Duke comes, and instead of running away like most cats, Charlie looks up at Duke and lets that silly dog lick him right in the face! Quite a sight to see!

Some things never change. I guess it's just like us. Check him out sleeping - age 6 mos. and age 5. Exact same position! Note in the second picture what he's sleeping on...the cable box. He loved to perch himself up there. The small electrical box generated just enough heat to keep him happy. "Charlie," we'd sometimes yell, "your tail is blocking the score!"

Gotta love this kitty! Just now he's asleep in the sunroom in a very cozy and fluffy bed. In a little while he'll move to a shadier spot on a flattened cardboard box, but not for long! That sun will be calling him back! Sometimes I think he's really a snake - he can't generate enough body heat on his own. :-)

Old Man Charlie

We have a very silly 17 year old cat. Or perhaps a more accurate statement would be that we have turned silly over our 17 year old cat. He is a bad kitty. Always has been. A friend told me I should blog some of these stories so here goes...

One Saturday morning near my husband and my 1st anniversary we awoke to the sound of something making quiet a racket outside our bedroom window. " What is that noise?" I asked. Tim replied, in a sleepy and irritated 

 voice, "A dumb bird" (he hates birds in the morning - imagine!). I listened for a minute. That was no bird - it was a frightened kitten crying for help! I jumped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes were on the floor, and ran out the front door. Was the kitten in the flowers in front of our townhouse? Was it somewhere near the sidewalk? I listened, following the sound.

There in the bushes in front of the apartment building across our street was a little, gray, sort of speckled kitten. He was so small! Couldn't have been over 8 weeks - separated from his mother at too young an age. I walked across the street and carefully approached the kitten, not wanting to scare him away. Each time a car drove by, he would leap back toward the shelter of the building, scraping his already slightly bloody nose. Poor little baby!

I held out my hand, twiddled my fingers, and lured him toward me. His huge green eyes met mine, and it was love at first sight. The little guy came right to me, letting me put him in my arms. I carried him back across the street to our apartment. By this time, Tim had gotten himself out of bed and met me on the porch. Oh, we cooed over him, scratched his chin, and held him close to us. Even Tim's heart melted just a little. But what should we do? 

We put up flyers, but no one claimed him, and thus began our long journey with this crazy guy. We couldn't afford a cat. We didn't have room for a cat.  We didn't really need the hassle of a pet what with Tim a full time grad student and me looking for a teaching position. But we kept him...and he's been trouble (and joy) ever since. Look how cute he is, though! We do indeed love him. 

More Charlie stories to come...