Tiki

Our cat Tiki passed away yesterday. Ray posted on his blog a very good description of what happened.

Tiki, of all my pets, has had the biggest personality. He was a dignified cat constantly foiled by his own klutziness. There was a meow (a very Siamese cat meow) for any and every occasion. I’ve never seen an animal so able to accurately get his message across. He had us trained to his whims in a matter of weeks.

He loved to sneak up behind ray and I and poke us in the side with his paw. The higher up on us the better. It proved to the world just how long a cat he was, a fact that he was always willing to demonstrate. He seemed particularly proud when he got my attention by getting into a chair backed up to mine and reaching up about three or four feet to whack me on the top of my head.

You couldn’t help but laugh when you would see him barely hanging onto furniture with three legs while reaching out as far as he could to tap ray when he would be just out of range. The scourge of sweaters just in range, Tiki’s paw was know as the “meathook.” I’m really going to miss the look of guilty innocence he would give when Ray would turn around and catch him in the act.

The death of a pet is difficult in a way that only pet owners know. The happiness and inevitable humor of having a pet more than make up for the pain.