Friday Cat Blogging: Henry

One of the most striking things about my recently departed friend Henry was her lack of basic cat skills. At no point in her eight odd years that I can recall did she ever intentionally scratch or bite a human being. She’s no pacifist, as she clearly demonstrated with regular attacks on weaker, smaller cats. I am convinced that she didn’t scratch or bite simply because she didn’t know that option was available to her. She lacked other basic cat skills, she couldn’t outrun a slow human such as myself, she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) hunt, and she rarely landed on her feet.

Henry routinely inspired jealousy in the humans she lived with. By arbitrarily favoring the lap of one person for weeks, then abandoning them and ignoring them for weeks at a time, in favor of other laps. It worked; she often had all her human hosts competing for her attention.

About a month ago, Henry got sick–it turned out it was her kidneys. She’s unusually young for kidney failure, and it’s possible she injested some toxins. Hoping the kidney failure was chronic and not acute, we hyrdrated her, took care of her, and hoped for the best. The last month of her life she was weak and inactive, but still enjoyed human attention and companionship. At six o’clock on December 31st, just after a feeding and some medicine, she left us. She was a wonderful, intriguing companion and the house feels empty without her.

Thanks to all who expressed their condolences in the earlier thread.