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
