How do you do justice to a funny, mercurial little furry being who had such a humongous, positive impact on your life for nearly 14 years?
Jamie came into our lives the day he was born. His mother was being fostered by a student's family, and I heard about Jamie and his four siblings just a few hours after their births. Some impulse prompted me to say I'd take a kitten, and Jamie came to live with us 10 weeks later. He was hyperactive, and we had little sleep or peace those first 18 months or so. He was a noisy cat, chattering away all day and stomping up and down the stairs like a baby elephant. He was so loud that one day a worker who was installing a new furnace next door and had been told by our neighbor that it was our cat he heard actually rang our bell and asked to see our cat - he must have thought a mountain lion was making all that noise!
Jamie's favorite things were going for a walk (often 2 or 3 a day) in the backyard, where he managed to catch prey despite being on a leash, being combed after every walk, jumping in cardboard boxes or paper bags, playing with fishing pole toys, chasing balls or the laser pointer and flicking his Daddy's guitar picks around the living room. We'll never forget the first time he caught a bat out on the secured balcony where he loved to sun himself and turned it loose to flatter around the living room! The Christmas tree was the highlight of the year for him, and he had so much fun "undecorating" the tree every night. He wasn't a lap cat, but loved to lie on top of us when we were prone and to cuddle in bed; his favorite place to sleep was directly on top of me. He loved rituals and wouldn't settle down for the night till he heard, "Don't let the bedbugs bite!" He always insisted on washing my ears and grooming the back of my husband's head and would go to great lengths to fulfill those self-imposed "duties".
Conversation was important to him, and he'd reach out a little white paw and touch my lips to tell me to talk to him. He discovered those little white paws were a very effective means of waking up humans when stuck in their mouths in the morning.
Jamie's first senior panels revealed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). He did well on heart meds for a long time and recovered pretty quickly from his first bout of congestive heart failure at the end of October 2011. His second, in February of 2012, almost killed him, but he was so determined to live, bore the limitations the disease imposed on him with a lot of fortitude and continued to enjoy life to the very best of his ability. Two weeks ago he started to really go downhill, and he told us yesterday that he was ready to be reunited with his mother, brothers and sister as well as his dog pal Aki.
Jamie, you've left a huge void in our lives, but you will always be in my heart and the countless precious memories of you. Saying farewell is so painful, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss a millisecond of our time together and hope your presence will continue to be felt here. Sleep tight, Jamie-cake. Mommy and Daddy love you.
