Sadly, I’m here today to once again eulogize a cat. You may recall that back in February, my faithful 14-year-old cat Larry took sick and was euthanized. (Check the archives.) Larry was part of a loopy threesome of cats I shared with Kathy ten years ago. First there was Larry, who we got in the fall of 1987. Then Oreo came along in 1989 (I think…maybe 88). Finally, Spiff joined the club in 1991.
When Kathy moved to Vancouver in early 1993 she took Oreo with her. Well, more accurately, I delivered Oreo when I visited not long after she moved there.
I had to give Oreo a tranquilizing pill, which the Vet had perscribed, before putting her on the plane. It was an early flight, and I was quite poor back then, so I gave her the pill before leaving the house. Then I carried her in the cold winter air to the Metro, where I rode with the going-to-work crowd all the way to the Lionel-Groulx station. From there I hopped the 211 Express bus to Dorval, and then another bus for the short hop to the airport. Oreo, who was normally very quiet and introverted, howled like a banshee the whole way.
Finally, at the airport, the pill kicked in. It was kind of funny, actually. She looked drunk. She was awake, and somewhat alert, but her reactions were very slow and her tongue was sticking out of her mouth a bit, making her look a bit stunned. I handed her over and she was checked into the special animal compartment. She survived the flight and was as cool as a cucumber when I picked her up in Vancouver.
Kathy informed me today that Oreo, so-named because of her cookie-like black and white fur, was struck by a car and killed yesterday. She says she didn’t suffer.
I haven’t seen Oreo in many years, but I remember her very well. She got along reasonably well with Larry, but Spiff was a terror as a kitten (still is) and he used to drive her crazy. Oreo, as I said, was quiet and introverted, but very affectionate. She didn’t talk much unless you put her in a car or took her on the Metro, in which case she would yowl so loud your eardrums would rattle. She was soft and a bit chubby and had thick lucious black fur with white highlights here and there, such as on her paws and her chin and belly.
When we first got Spiff I was about to enter Concordia University to work on a BFA (part time) with a major in Photography. One day I was looking for something to photograph, and there was Spiff, terrorizing Larry and Oreo, so I got down to cat’s eye view and photographed the shenannigans. It went on for hours. I ended up making a little book about it. It begins with a formal portrait of each of them, then ten fighting shots (Spiff is in every one–it’s always Spiff against one of the others), and ends with a picture of the three of them napping at the foot of the bed.
Here’s one of the pictures of Spiff (left) getting ready to pounce on the much larger Oreo, who is trying to defend herself:
