|
Pamela Marie Curtis died peacefully on Dec. 17, 2005 of kidney failure and related complications. A wonderfully feisty, tiny
little kitten, she was presented to me on a cake platter on my 30th birthday (1988). Ambitious and fearless (a tabby, they
are closely related to tigers), she took on big projects like washing the dog (Irish-setter/lab), wrestling rolls of toilet
paper into submission, and scaling the curtains so she could walk around on top of the curtain rods. She was a mainstay of
stability for me as I went through an itinerant phase, moving from North Carolina to Massachusetts to Vermont, to Ohio to
Massachusetts to Maine to Massachusetts. She drove the moving van on all these occasions. She knew well the music libraries
at Bowdoin College and Dartmouth Univ. (the rolling shelves of the latter were particularly exciting). I kept a litter pan
under my desk at these institutions, and others.
Pamela gave lie to the stereotype of the stand-offish, aloof cat, as she was often intensely affectionate with total strangers,
rubbing and nuzzling, ankles if you were standing, or climbing onto your lap, whatever she could reach. She would show no
respect for personal space and once was told "Hey, keep it decent!" by a visitor. If petted or scratched properly she sometimes
drooled in ecstasy. Ecstasy was really the word. When you have a female cat spayed, they are not supposed to be in heat
at the time. Well, she was, and it made me wonder if that somehow put her into a permanent state of heat the way she would
so intensely and relentlessly butt and nuzzle anyone and everyone. And if one should happen to drop a piece of worn underwear
on the floor, you might find her writhing on it in the most immodest manner. If I had filmed her doing that I probably could
have sold it via the web and made a lot of money.
She learned from her siblings, Winnie and Bertie, and they learned from her. She learned to fetch toys from watching Winnie,
although Pam had a unique way of uttering an unearthly yowl while holding a toy in her mouth. It told the world she was
in predator mode. When I bought one of those videos of birds, designed for cats, Pam was the one who "got" it right away.
Her siblings sat watching her watch the TV, and eventually decided there must be something to it, and they tried it themselves.
She was also the only cat to never loose a fascination with the computer screen -- the cursor, the screen saver, just scrolling
up and down -- and she opened her own files on several occasions. And for as long as I have had computer monitors, she has
been sleeping on top of them.
She always loved to find new hiding places to sleep -- under blankets and pillows, in cupboards and in the hamper (a perennial
favorite). She loved to taste food on other peoples' plates (but just a taste!) and she had a way of being primly passive
aggressive that led me to call her The Queen. She would sit, poised and motionless before her food bowl, her paws in ballet
position 3 until she got what she wanted. She would sometimes glare at her brother who meows insistently until he is fed
-- "No dignity!" she was obviously scolding him.
She was my "Chirpy Girl" as she would trill a rising arpeggio in a response to a stroke or pet. In the summer she would
sit looking out an open window and let out a chirp when she saw me coming up the driveway. She was also the "keeper of the
boy-free space" and kept my head warm at night.
Pets have such a special place in our lives -- we don't have the complicated or resentful feelings for them that we often
do for humans. And in this case, she has been part of my life longer than most of my friends -- it feels like she was my
child, one that I never got to send to college (but I didn't ever have to pay her bail bonds ...). Or was she my child?
After all, important things -- how to wash herself, and how to bury after using the litter pan -- she knew herself from infancy,
and were not taught to her by me. Most of all, what we get from pets is pure joy; but we learn, too, and what I've learned
I'll be processing for a long time.
What I've learned from Miss Pam -- a partial list
When you catch a fly, don't torture it, don't play with it, just eat it in one gulp.
· Lie down in every available patch of sun.
· If strangers come to your house, they are only there to give you pleasure.
· The person who doesn't seem to like you just needs extra attention and some intense nuzzling and they can be won over.
· Food tastes best nibbled in small quantities, throughout the day; and it always tastes best off of other peoples' plates.
· A computer is a good thing -- it's so nice and warm.
· If your brother tries to get close to you, just hit him on the nose.
· Doors should always be left open, even if you don't want to go out (you might want to at any time. Or you might not)
· The softest pillow is the one the human is using, so always try and use that one.
· When you are done washing yourself, wash others.
|
