It's still dark as I begin writing this.
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| Here's the little guy sitting on my patio, waiting for his invite inside 2010 |
I've returned from Phoenix Arizona to a topsy turvy home. Lots happened in the weeks I was gone, much of it not good. I haven't blogged for a bit because it's been depressing to tell the truth. I've started several times but erased each time. Even now I am not certain I'll get through this in one go.
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| Anna and Phx, both so small 5 years ago |
You see, it's been 5 years since I first set eyes on a little feral kitten, born down the street from me in my little community in Glendale.
I first saw him and his sister (a black and white) as they sat in the sun in the middle of one of the parking lots a few feet apart. At that time cats were being littered in the 'wild' three times a year. Public places were over run with feral cats. Cats roamed freely, males fighting for turf, getting vicious, cut up, beat up. Many ended up maimed or dead.
This one little kitten I saw around a number of times, he seemed to be actually looking for a home. He was turfed out of at least two places and the first time I got close to him, he actually took some ham from me, not getting too close. He reminded me in a way of Einstein, the abandoned cat I'd adopted (or he adopted me I don't remember which exactly) twenty years earlier, he had died March 31st that year, 2010... and this little guy left me with an impression.
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| "I'm IN!!" |
I was still living in Calgary at the time and had driven down instead of flying. I had company in nieces Cindy (whose birthday we celebrated that November) and her older sister Liz. They'd left after their week and Brenda and Anna were arriving in just a few days.
Somehow mother and daughter ended up with this little kitten at my home, but my rule was he couldn't come in the house, I was not ready to get into another cat so soon after Einsteins passing.
I even went to far as to build him a sheltered box with a towel in it just outside my patio. He would meow and meow first exercising what would become the most vocal of all the cats I'd ever have, he grew into a regular Pavarotti!
Christmas day 2010 he finally got into the house and stayed! He was part of the only Christmas I've had in Glendale and had become a part of my life.
When the girls left, and it was obvious the little guy had no intentions of looking any further, he'd found his place... I didn't think he could survive such a long trip 'home' and especially in the dead of winter. I tried the Humane society, the local pet shops that had adoption programs, nobody wanted to take him, there were simply too many feral cats to deal with. His options were slim so I decided to start driving him short distances in the two weeks I had remaining before heading north.
He did okay gradually doing several hours at a time, not happy, yowling at first in the bone chilling fashion cats are noted for but when the day came to lock the door for the final time, he had a bed on the passenger seat, his litter box food and water on the folded rear seats and over my head was a pillow with a birds eye view of the road. The trip didn't start out smoothly, I thought the shrieking was going to drive me batty as we headed towards Kingman on route 60, but eventually things settled into a routine and for the most part he'd settle in after we got on the road and in three days including a border crossing where he sat on my lap, the customs agent asking me if he was a good traveler and I replied actually, yes he was.
Phoenix as I had named him, settled into his Calgary life, was fixed and became my constant companion.
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| Phx and Willy overlooking Spring Valley |
When it came time for the BIG move east, I bundled him into the rear cab of my pick-up truck and we, together, began the biggest journey of his life, 5000 kms across Canada, a drive that was fraught with problems and 11 very long days.
Once here, he settled into this home like this is where he was meant to be. It was safer than the city, had lots of grounds to roam, mice to catch, foxes to ponder and true to his wild side, he fit right in.
Later that year (2012) we added a 6 year old female that needed a home and a little underweight boy in a bubble kitty from the shelter. We now had three cats in the house and we loved it. Abby, Willy and Phx didn't always get along but for the most part, Phx was the Alpha and took his place at the top of the brood.
Since then I have been back to his home and every time I walk or ride by the unit where his life began, or look out at my huge shade tree he would routinely climb as a kitten or seeing little
Boo patrolling the fence just as a little kitten named
Phoenix once did, I smile a wide smile.
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| Little Boo patrolling the fence and tree in Glendale |
As I was preparing to leave before dawn on a Saturday morning for this last trip, he sat at the door and I said to him as I usually did...
"You're the man of the house now pal, look after things for me while I'm gone and I'll see you soon."
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| Abby |
I began the normal moving in task upon arrival down south, repairing some damage caused by a break-in last spring, getting bikes and scooter geared up, groceries, making little Boo feel right at home... normal things.
Into the middle of my trip, while talking to Brenda she tells me that my pal, my co-pilot didn't seem very chipper. Within a day he was at our local vet and they thought there was something amiss after taking blood for testing. He was back the very next day and had 53cc of fluid drained from his chest cavity, his pleural sack putting pressure on his lungs causing difficulty breathing.
After that initial visit they suspected heart problems or maybe even cancer, only further testing which we did at the facility of the Atlantic Vet College in Charlottetown proved was cancer. Within two weeks of that first Skype conversation, my boy died. In fact he died the day before I was to return to PEI.
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| My Tree. My fence. My Home. First of three with me. He was so tiny:) |
To say I was besides myself with grief, heartbroken, would not be doing it justice. People that have never felt closeness with dogs or cats can't imagine the bond that develops between people and animals.
This wonderful, little kitten that grew up into a robust healthy house cat, that had traveled over 7500 kilometers with me through desert heat, sub zero blizzard weather and across thousands of miles of Canada, he left us too soon, much to soon.
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| Einstein in his latter years. |
Einstein was diagnosed with feline epilepsy and not expected to live longer than 5 years... yet he survived and outlasted younger cats and was with me for 19 years. Little Phx, who I was told had 'wildcat' in his genes, who I was certain would outlive me, just took sick and died, barely 5 years old.
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| Phx loved my bikes! |
I'd had other co-pilot kitties, Maggie the most notable next to Phx. I found her while riding one day on a back trail on the Island, brought her and her brother home in my helmet wrapped up in my vented racing jersey. She died just after her 1st birthday from the anesthetic while being spayed.
Phoenix was unique! A singer, individual, one of a kind like Einstein before him.
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| He just loved being outside, it's where he was born after all. |
After Einstein I didn't think there would be another such cat in my life, I didn't think I could love another cat more than him, and I didn't.
What this little gray feral kitten that spent five great years in my life did, was to grow my heart even larger!
He had that effect on me.
He was my pal.
He was my co-pilot, my wingcat.
I cannot tell anyone how much I will miss him, I myself don't know... but forever after, his spirit will roam among the mice and foxes of our little Spring Valley.
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| He'd gone nose to nose once with this little female red fox. |
God speed little Phoenix on to Rainbow Bridge...
Phoenix the cat Summer 2010 December 5, 2015
R.I.P my friend, my co pilot.
