Delilah Gumby Growltiger

2016

Delilah Gumby Growltiger
September 6, 2016
Breed
Tortie cat

Temperament
taught me a lot about responsibility

Special Memory
My beloved little girl. I didn't know that trying to write your memorial three months later could renew my sorrow over your absence….we were together such a long time. So many adventures. You taught me a lot about responsibility little girl. You came near to death December of 2013 due to an infection and we were given two and a half more years to try to make up for lost times. Do you remember driving north to San Francisco with me and you having to stay all night in the basement of an ancient Bed and Breakfast because the owner was allergic to cats? Do you remember the weeks before you became so ill talking and talking to me trying to make me understand there was a problem? They say Torties are talkers and you were one of them. Remember how irritated I'd get with you….that is until I finally understood. Sometimes you just wanted me to hold you just for a little while. Then your paws would go around my neck and I felt your soft, warm little belly next to me? Just for a minute. That's all you needed to be close just for a while. Then your name. According to T.S. Eliot in his poem “The Naming of Cats” cats are supposed to have three names and since as a youngster you ran growling to the front door any time someone knocked, I borrowed the idea from Eliot. Do you remember climbing the chain link fence out back in order to swat at the wind chimes hanging above? And how you regularly came to the kitchen, sat there with your two paws together and watched me at work. Always your eyes fixed on me. Remember your wooden apple crate attached to the same fence and you lying (with great contentment) there surrounded by scarlet bougainvillea , honeysuckle and a beautiful lavender pipe vine? Do you recall how everything had to be your idea first? I'd open the door to let you in and then count to ten before I shut the door and you usually slipped in at about 8 or 9 1/2. Rascal that should have been your name. Do you remember our other long drives north and how you loved to lean on the window and watch the trucks go by? How much you loved company and how much you loved to hide. Remember when you first came to us your eyes were still closed. Someone found you and your brother, Sampson on a sidewalk in North Hollywood and brought you to us and we fed you with a bottle and when your eyes opened they were like little blue buttons then later turned green. I didn't want you at first couldn't take care of a cat. But you stayed anyway. Remember when you were at least a year or more you "disappeared" and I was frantically calling you, searching everywhere and happened to look up to our flat roof and there by the tree you climbed you were watching the whole show unfolding beneath you and then the coaxing it took to get you down again. Then December 2013 after a major illness your caretaker said you'd had a reaction to the medications and soiled yourself. Well, so proud you were that when I came in from a trip with a few people you sat on your chair furiously grooming yourself to look presentable to your guests. I cleaned you up and brought you to bed with me. Remember the cardboard Costco boxes I'd bring after shopping? How you and your Tortie "sisters" would compete to claim one for your own? And then there was the Wednesday one week before you left us forever…I was gardening, the day was warm and you found a sunny place on our neighbor's front walk. You lay there looking across the driveway as if absorbing our place, the home you'd known for almost 18 years. I wanted to take a photo of you and thought "I'll get it next Wednesday." But there was no next Wednesday for us. The following Friday, April 29 you journeyed on. Gracie, your kitty soul-mate came into the bedroom and cried for you Thank you for your time with us. You will always be a part of our lives.