{quotable thursdays/dedication to a good cat}

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot 


Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
Anatole France 

It is with a sad heart that I write to announce the death of my dear cat:

Samundar Clark: 13 August 1992-23 September 2013

At 21 years old, this loving cat lived a life most humans would be envious of. Samundar (meaning the sea in Hindi, appropriate for a blue Siamese cat who sailed the seas) travelled widely and lived in numerous houses, from Victoria to Montreal & Ottawa, and Vermont to LA, not to mention a large portion of her life spent aboard boats sailing the coastal waterways of BC. She was a kind, gentle cat, a mother of numerous litters, a friend & furry companion. She was a good cat after all. She will be greatly missed.

On an autumn day in October 1992, 21 years ago, my Dad and my 10-year-old self, drove up in the Landrover to pick our new little kitten up. We had just come back from a year sailing around the world, and I was trying to get my bearings at school. It was a year where girls were mean to each other and I found it hard to relate to my age group after spending a year on a sailing ship with 30 people aged 18-25 years old. My sister was on ‘rat patrol’ or what we called her duty of looking at the paper every day to see if there were any Siamese cats for sale (‘rat’ being a name adopted for all cats in my family after my parents’ first Siamese cat who had sailed around the world with them on their honeymoon, fell into the water and looked like a drowned rat, inheriting the nickname of rat).

One day my sis put down the paper with a big red circle around an advert—blue point kittens for sale—and there were a couple of females! I had a pro-d day, so my Dad & I drove up to this funny cat breeder’s house, and we picked out our little Samundar (aka lambs, wools, miss lambs, lamben, woolsy, lambsey).

 She was so tiny and I held her tight all the way home. Little did I realise how integral to my life she would be—the little sister I never had. Growing up on boats and travelling the world, ‘home’ for me was about the people around me. This little cat came to symbolise ‘home’ for me. She was a constant as I moved from childhood to adulthood, and she will be in my heart until the day that I die.

After 21 years on this earth, it was time for her to go. But there is grief in her departure, and yet, I will have so many memories of her. Indeed, my memories of childhood are inevitably bound up with memories of her. Farewell Samundar—may you rest in peace and may you shine down from Heaven, looking out for me in the next 21 years, and the 21 after that.
If you'd like to see more of miss lambs, I've written on her here & here, on her 21st b-day & here.

{rest now in eternal slumber dear, dear cat}

xo, 

L