He was a very strange cat, at least to me. However, my TacaCat was a very strange cat to others, too. Pinky was a huge unattractive orange soccer ball of fur with a cat head. He would literally eat until he threw up. Dietary self regulation was not in his repertoire. Can you blame him, though? He was an alley cat rescued from a Tokyo street who attached himself thoroughly, utterly to my sister. That kind of devotion from a living purring creature can be so fulfilling and comforting. She was his guardian angel.
Pinky traveled with his companion, MommyCat, all the way from Tokyo to Yorklyn, DE to Norwalk, CA to Baltimore, MD, along with the life transistions of my sister. However, after being rescued from the life of a street cat, he rarely ever cared to venture past the threshold to the “outside” again. He liked the GumbyCat existence: eating, sleeping, and “sits, and sits, and sits, and sits”. Pinky would glare at strangers (including me) if they entered his domain, and quickly trot off to a more secluded place to take up the occupation of sitting. He disliked other cats that tried to enter his world as well - so much so that he hurled himself once through a sidelight window at a neighbor cat who tried to sit on “his” front step, and peer in.
Today, Pinky returned to “Kitty Heaven” in Yorklyn, Delaware once again to lay at rest in the grassy grounds he would peer out at through his windows, but did not care much to explore. In his last months, he began to lose weight and on the eve of his next move it was discovered he had cancer. He was given a shot which relieved his pain, and for a short moment he was in the arms of his “guardian angel” and pain free. He relaxed, and purred his thanks, and shortly passed on to his next existence. It was quite a project to hack out his grave in sun-baked earth with tools that had not seen a whetstone, probably in decades. Especially given that those of us attempting the task were in various capacities of disability - partial amputees, spinal problems, and middle age. It was a trio that could have been quite a comedy routine. We completed the task,though, digging in odd directions to try to avoid the multitudes of roots.
I appreciated Pinky for the friendship and the comfort he gave my sister. He wasn’t handsome, winsome, or talented in any way. However, he excelled in appreciation and devotion. So long Pinky. And thank you.
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