rest in peace, Garage Kitty
Jan. 22nd, 2011 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynnegaThe Garage Kitty has passed away. Her appetite had waned recently, but I'd thought she would bounce back as she had in the past, and she'd seemed otherwise fine. It was only on Wednesday night that I knew she was in trouble, and her decline was swift after that. I'm glad she didn't suffer long. I will miss her terribly. It's pretty amazing that she was never hit by a car or picked off by a wild animal from the hillside. She lived quite a long life for an outdoor cat.
I'm not sure how old the Garage Kitty was. I moved into the apartment building nearly fourteen years ago, and she may already have been here then. She was originally a housecat belonging to a tenant who then abandoned her. I'm not sure what happened to turn her feral. If she had wanted back into the building and if she'd not been averse to being touched, any number of tenants would have adopted her--but whenever I opened the door to the building, she just looked at me like, "What?" Once she set up residence in the garage and the surrounding hillside, she lived life on her own terms. I knew her for years before I started feeding her. I'd shoo her off my car in the morning, though it was clear she thought all the cars in the garage really belonged to her. Then one day, a little over two years ago, she started meowing at me for food, and I joined the small group of tenants who fed her. One by one, they moved away, until it was just me taking care of her.
Although she refused to be touched, she was otherwise sociable. She had a whole repertoire of meows, and she was often talkative. I know she trusted me as much as it was possible for her to trust a human. Taking care of her has been one of the high points of my life.
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I'm not sure how old the Garage Kitty was. I moved into the apartment building nearly fourteen years ago, and she may already have been here then. She was originally a housecat belonging to a tenant who then abandoned her. I'm not sure what happened to turn her feral. If she had wanted back into the building and if she'd not been averse to being touched, any number of tenants would have adopted her--but whenever I opened the door to the building, she just looked at me like, "What?" Once she set up residence in the garage and the surrounding hillside, she lived life on her own terms. I knew her for years before I started feeding her. I'd shoo her off my car in the morning, though it was clear she thought all the cars in the garage really belonged to her. Then one day, a little over two years ago, she started meowing at me for food, and I joined the small group of tenants who fed her. One by one, they moved away, until it was just me taking care of her.
Although she refused to be touched, she was otherwise sociable. She had a whole repertoire of meows, and she was often talkative. I know she trusted me as much as it was possible for her to trust a human. Taking care of her has been one of the high points of my life.
