f. Chloe RIP

Chloe, the senior feline catus domesticus member of the family, passed away friday afternoon.

Chloe was a very proper grand old lady cat.

She showed up in our garden in Aptos one spring and stayed with us for very many years through mutliple moves.

For the last four months she had been getting progressively more sick, general old age related problems, which required more and more medication. This week she became reluctant to eat and very withdrawn, and friday morning she refused water. We took her in, had her sedated and then put down, the alternative was too painful for her.

The Big Kid is meeting some existential angst, delicate age for that; the Munchkin has started asking "where is Chloe".
Her step-brother, the mighty Þór, has withdrawn into his box, and wanders around confused and upset when he comes out.

Tears all around.

She had a good long life.

Chloe sleeps (2007)

Chloe was apparently spayed and then abandoned in the state park forest in Aptos when she was less than one year old.
We were renting Bob Kraft's house while he was on sabbatical, on the cliffs above the beach, backing onto the forest.
Chloe showed up in the garden, we found her sunning herself on the wellhouse roof; she accepted some chicken, barfed on my foot and moved in.
Within about two weeks she was taking the most comfortable spot on the big bed and ruling the house.

She once charged out of the house and jumped a stray dog, about 5 times bigger than she, who had cornered my wife away from the back door - the dog ran for it.
She got lost after we moved, was gone for weeks - chased off by an aggressive tomcat - and then found by a neighbour, with one of her forelegs almost garrotted off. A "mastercard moment" and several surgeries later she was back, good as new (apart from a jag in her striped in the left side), and she had a new baby brother - Þór, aka Thor, had followed us home from the Santa Cruz SPCA one day that we went there looking for Chloe.

She was very good with the kids, sat over them when they were infants and came to get us if they woke or cried, more efficient than any baby monitor.

She was very affectionate, a gourmand, and had the softest fur on the planet.

Mama cat.