Forever Autumn

[Wrote this December 28, 2007]

We said goodbye to our cat Autumn today.

I don't know what else to do, so I will share some of our favorite stories about her.

The Discovery

We first met Autumn in June, 1997, at the Longmont Humane Society. We were looking to adopt two cats. My wife spied a little calico kitten, just a bundle of white, orange, and grey, and it was love at first sight. We were browsing around for the kitten who would be her companion, when a little girl, maybe seven or so, and her mother came in. They stopped at the calico's cage, and I heard the girl say "ooh Mommy, I want that one". I hustled over to Mandy and told her to haul a-- down to the administrator so we could book that kitten. She got the worker, who took the kitten and us into their "interview" room where we could check each other out. We asked the kitten if she would be a good little cat. She sniffed us, walked around, played with us a little, and let us hold her. A good enough answer. The kitten's given name was Callie, but my wife knew she would call her Autumn by the time we left the shelter.

Already Trained

We brought Autumn and her brother home, and put her in the spare bedroom that we'd outfitted as the kittens' staging room. Autumn went over to her new food bowl, and nibbled a little. She then walked over to her new scratching post and clawed it a bit. Finally she went over to the little box, and did her business. Perfect.

We Know Your Secret

One day we couldn't find Autumn. We called and searched; no luck. I finally saw her walking around the living room with a sheepish, innocent look on her face. But all of her white fur was gray, so it didn't take much to figure that her hideout was behind the fireplace.

In My Hands

Sometimes when she was little, I would carry her in the palms of my outstretched hands. Whenever I did that, I couldn't help singing or humming to the melody of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" -- but of course the lyrics were "I've got the little bitty kitty, in my hands".

Meow Meow Meow

Autumn and her brother were very vocal. While her brother would chirp, Autumn would bark out meow's, so to speak. My wife remembers sitting on the sofa, when Autumn came in, meowing precisely, with one meow per step.

Jumbo Shrimp

One day, we had some leftover shrimp from an Olive Garden meal. For kicks, I gave each kitten one shrimp. The kittens faced off, about two feet apart, and stared at each other, motionless. Then they started making strange groaning noises. My wife and I had never heard them make noises like that, and weren't sure what they meant. We thought we'd better make sure that they were ok, so I put my hand down to pet Autumn a little. With a lightning-quick stroke she slashed my hand pretty good with her claws. Ok, don't mess with their shrimp. We stood back to watch how it would end. After growling for a bit longer, Ajax started playing with his shrimp. Batting it into the air, picking it up with his teeth, tossing it around. Meanwhile, Autumn started eating her shrimp. Ajax kept playing with his; Autumn kept eating, and when she was done, she sneaked up on Ajax, and then grabbed his shrimp and ran.

Keep That Off the Scratching Post

Autumn didn't like anything to be put on top of her scratching posts. Once I absent-mindedly put a puff ball on top of one, and she hurled herself at the post to knock the ball off, scaring me. After that, we spent hours playing at this.

Hide the Toys

Autumn liked to bring us her favorite toys, often in the middle of the night. We'd hear a faint meowing, steadily growing stronger, then ending as she dropped the toy off at the foot of our bed, or sometimes on top. We finally had to hide her little stuffed lobster, her frog finger-puppet, and all the puff-balls, to get some sleep.

The End

Came downstairs this morning after showering. Autumn wasn't using her litter box any more, and there was a spill. Mopped it up. Wanted to put her on our comfortable easy chair, and went searching for a towel I put under her. Went rummaging through the linen closet to find a towel other than our nice guest towels (which is pretty funny to think about now, that I wasn't willing to waste a "good" towel on her). Found a purple bath towel, a utility towel by then, a little old, but still in good shape. We used to use it to line her car carrier when we took a long trip. I put the towel on the chair, and wrapped it around her. She didn't move the rest of the morning, while we got the kids up and got ready to go. Friend came to watch the kids; time for us to go.

No need to use the car carrier this trip, as she was very docile. My wife simply picked her up with the towel wrapped around, and carried her out to the car, and in her lap as we drove out. It was cold out; twenty degrees or so, and I'm glad we wrapped her. My wife told me as we drove over that we had to leave the towel there; we couldn't bring it back. They had a nice cushion on the table in the vet's office, and we just placed her down, and kept her in the towel.

The vet gave her an anaesthetic, but decided to forgo the normal sedative. They shaved off a bit of fur on the hind leg for the terminal injection. Autumn didn't even flinch; yet another sign of how far out of it she was. Then the injection, and a moment later she was gone. The vet left. We stayed there, continuing to pet her for a few minutes, then closed her eyes and left. I stopped in the next examination room to swipe some kleenexes. We'd emptied the box in our room.

I don't know if there's any significance to a purple burial shroud. We didn't consciously send her off with one. But I'm glad I did; it feels dignified. I'll never forget looking back; our last sight of our little queen Autumn lying there, peacefully, wrapped in purple.