At a bit past 4pm today, the grand dame of our felines, Kali, passed away. She went quietly, in her sleep, not 30 minutes after she was purring happily in Patrick’s lap. (Though, happily, not in Patrick’s lap.)

She had been in serious decline for about six months. Really, we thought we were going to lose her at the end of January. But after a round of treatment she had bounced back and was her normal, dairy product stealing, cat trouncing, human loving self, albeit outraged she was suddenly a strictly indoor cat.

I was hoping we’d have her ’til the end of summer, but suspected she might leave us soon when, last weekend, she slipped out of the house and was discovered about 5 blocks away from some very kind folks who returned her with the aid of the address on her tag. Before then she wouldn’t go more than a block from the house.

She quacked, screamed like a drowning virgin,* never met a cat she didn’t want to beat up, had clandestine friendships with German Shepards, was on constant patrol, collected people, terrorized mice, performed hammer locks on birds, was always dignified except when:

• - She jumped up on a shelf full of CDs which triggered an avalanche of said CDs. She immediately tried to run up the cascade to regain her perch. But she didn’t.
• - She’s found a particularly nice patch of sun..
• - When she met Crash, Jenn and Kevin Moore’s substantial German Shepard for the first time. She was sitting on the porch rail and, upon seeing Crash, arched up so high in rage and fear that she fell over sideways.
• - Being adored by the Boys.
• - More than once she jumped to the top of an open door and pondered vexedly how she was going to get down as she swayed back and forth.

And there’s lots more stories, she had been with us a long time. But here’s one last one: Kali never accepted the fact that she had to share her house with other cats. She tolerated the Boys, but never accepted the interlopers who lived downstairs. I reckon that with Cicely and Roslyn having finally moved out a couple weeks back, Kali figured her work was done and she could rest easy.

*Thanks for that always, Dylan.

additional

The cat page that Kip created a while back for Kali and Ranger
Christopher Baldwin’s collage of all our now ex-cats.

Here I am, doing weekly updates again! This week with page 13 of part 9 : Out of a Molehill. After reading it I’ll bet you’ll figure out why I wish I could’ve uploaded this page last week.

Then there’s the fact that I wrote this and the next scene years ago. There are some shifts and changes, naturally, but the essence is the same. which makes the timing of this page even funnier for me. And, oddly, really drives home how damn close I am to finally being done with this first Book of Dicebox.