Tiki Monster Rebecca Jean-Jean Princess Pie Crust
I love cats. For those who know me, that’s a laughably severe understatement. I’m probably one cat away from being a Crazy Cat Lady. That’s totally fine. I have a tendency to excess. My entire life has been spent with many types of animals. In my family, we had tons of pets. My childhood was chock full of them. Dogs and cats were the usual companions; it didn’t matter if they were mine or someone else’s. I loved everybody’s and still do! I’d roll around with a big golden retriever or husky, lie in the grass petting a pitty and snuggle with a feral cat (I have a death wish). Oh, and kick it with a ostrich as long as it didn’t kick my ass in return.
When my wonderful boyfriend and I first moved in together, I wanted a cat so badly. We were just beginning our collective lives together in a small apartment. At the time, it wasn’t the right time so we settled on a betta fish. After a move to a second apartment (and another betta fish or two later), we adopted our first baby through a local cat rescue, Cat Network of Stanislaus. Our 2 1/2 year old torbie Tiki slowly warmed up to us after hand feeding her while lying on our bellies on the carpet as she hunkered down in her carrier. To this day, she still licks us expecting to taste canned food. She later was diagnosed with asthma so Mommy and Daddy had to learn how to treat her for that. I have suffered with the disease since junior high. Go figure, just our luck. We ended up with a special needs kitty as our first of many feline sons and daughters to come, but we wouldn’t trade our journey with her for a perfectly healthy one. We have learned so much from being her people, her Kahu. Kahu is a Hawaiian word for a deeper, more spiritual caretaker for an animal. We have grown more knowledgeable in cat care and behavior. She is now 14 1/2 years old. This spring, we just received devastating news that she has GI Lymphoma. The cancer is too advanced to be able to do much of anything so we are providing her home hospice care during the final stage of life. FUCK CANCER! We are extremely distraught and on the verge of tears daily. Anticipatory grief is almost worse than the actual grief after passing. Despite this sad end to a beautiful chapter of 12 years with our feline daughter, we are focusing on her comfort and spending more quality time than ever with her. She now gets daily backyard time to explore and lay in the sunshine while we watch her like the piece of art that she is. She snacks on grass and bats at plant leaves. She even lets us hold her and carry her around, which is something she always protested since we adopted her. Tiki still exhibits a fierce old woman sense of self mixed with a pinch of leftover kitten curiosity. I aspire to be the very same in my old age. This website is dedicated to her current earthly stay and future memory.
