Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Resurrection Of Larry

Larry, my old tortoiseshell cat, my first cat, has an entire ventricle of my heart all to herself, and she's got it all set up with the comfy chair and fluffy quilt and gas heat and the whole nine yards. That cat got most of my love, and when people were being difficult she got all of it, and then she went and died on me after only seventeen years, in defiance of our previous agreement. After a couple years we picked up the Tater cat, and she has several fine qualities--four, if you include her affectionate teeth, which I don't. Tater's just a fine and sturdy cat, but she has never had the same effect on me as Larry does, even in memory, now that the details of her personal hygiene are fading.

I don't mind telling you this, because Tater doesn't read my blog. She's been featured in it, but she never reads it. Her tastes run more to mouse mysteries and adventure. She does like to apply asshole prints to my manuscripts, but I'm not so sensitive as to consider that an opinion. Larry, on the other hand, would totally have read my blog if I'd had one.

So Dave and I were out walking in the neighborhood the other day and suddenly, here comes this little tortoiseshell kitty from a house a half-block away at full gallop, straight at me like an arrow from a bow, and skids to a halt at my feet. We looked at each other. "Larry?" I said, tentatively, and she flops over to show me that freckledy belly I so adored. We hug. We kiss. One of us gets a belly-rub. Then I tell her we have to be going, and she sits down, and we walk away, and a block later (I looked) she was still sitting and looking at me.

A week later I found an excuse to swing by again, and the house she shot out of was vacant, a For Rent sign in the yard. Well, that's Larry all over: just cuts out on you, after only seventeen years.

Most of my friends believe in something. Some have met ghosts, some have lucky numbers, some hope for reincarnation, some herd coincidences until they corral them into significance, some believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. A large number aspire to eternity in the form of a vaporous spiritual miasma. Almost all would insist that my dearly departed Larry has reassured me that she lives still. I don't know. I'm not really constituted that way.

But I'm sure glad she dropped by.

Happy Thanksgiving.

53 comments:

  1. As an animal lover, I've frequently had the experience of thinking that a former beloved pet's spirit has somehow returned to me in a new pet. Like you, I'm inclined to disbelieve that interpretation, yet still I marvel in the wonders of the unexplained mysteries of life and the wonders of a pet's love. Thank you for a story which explores such mysterious without any heavy handed, forced interpretations. I think it's sufficient just to ponder these mysteries and feel thankful for them. Happy Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not constituted that way either, but serendipity like this is to be enjoyed. Or is it more synchronicity in this case? Whatever. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's not mystical...it's just an anomaly in the time-cat continuum :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That incident would have converted me and pretty sure I would be on the ten most wanted catnappers list.
    So glad you got to be touched from beyond.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just finished watching a NOVA documentary on String Theory. Apparently some physicists claim there are as many as eleven dimensions, so I'm pretty sure one of them must be the Larry dimension. (I'm also hoping one is the chocolate eclair dimension).

    ReplyDelete
  6. How wonderful. Enough to make me smile and be glad for both of you. Happy Thanksgiving, Murr, and I am also thankful for YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think she left because only YOU got a belly rub, and she was pissed you didn't return the favor...

    ReplyDelete
  8. AWwwww.
    I might cry but it's too dang cold to risk that this morning (-9f).
    I miss Tiger, Callie, Cooper, and Aditi.
    But old cats are never really gone for good. Their hair hangs around forever and ever.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have oft wondered if it was physically possible to laugh and cry at the same time...this blog post was the perfect experimental vehicle to test the hypothesis. Just in case anyone was wondering, the result was a resounding yes. And, as an unexpected side discovery, a heart can be warmed, and yet also break a bit simultaneously. We animal lovers are such a sentimental breed. I don't know if we can ever give back all they give us, but I think Larry may have just stopped by to say 'Thanks for the comfy spot in your heart'.

    Now I'm all gooey, and will have to share large quantities of Thanksgiving dinner with all our furry kids.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gooey ... I'm seeping into the floorboards.

    ReplyDelete
  11. My prior cat, Cheyanne, used to sleep on my shoulder, and drool onto my neck...and I loved her dearly...mainly because she chose me, and I submitted heartily. Cats have that ability...and I think great, great grandson of Larry was very nice to give you a little Thanksgiving noddle.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Believing that I have a soul, I DO believe that animals have souls too. I do somewhat fear a reunion in the great beyond though. With all the cats that I've had in my life will I be tagged the Crazy Cat Spirit Lady(Spirit)???

    Unbelievably sweet photo of you and Larry...

    ReplyDelete
  13. My best friend, Buddy, was Brewster in a former life -- or so I like to think, I may be crazy. Who isn't?

    I have hopes that if he came back one time, he can come back again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Space-time, string, whatever...maybe you just got treated to a glimpse of one of Larry's other nine lives! Happy Thanksgiving, M.! Somewhere, Gaugin and Lord H. are smiling over this post. Me too, Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  15. If people have souls, then cats surely do. I don't really believe in either but I'm glad your kitty dropped by. The love is real in any case: I'm pretty hazy about all the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Blog commenters have soul, that's for sure. Let's stipulate that cats have souls and that they shed, too. They shed little heart-squeezes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sweet stuff. I like the idea of little heart squeezes. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Spirits do live on. My wife sometimes calls me Woody, her old cat's name.

    ReplyDelete
  19. When our old yellow lab, Winston, left this plane of existence, one of my lads asked if dogs go to heaven. No point discussing certain philosophical concepts with a 4 year old so I just said that I thought they must do, as their souls are so pure. "Dat's good", he said, "Because I'm not going to heaven if dere's no dogs dere".

    Works for me. Because I've got a few of those ventricles too, Murr. And it's hard to type with watery eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh Tony, honey. She's not calling you Woody after her cat.

    Tiffin: do we all have stuffed ventricles now? We are such saps. Lucky us.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Ours was named Angelina; this was long before the actress with the large lips came on the scene. We miss her... but I must confess it is nice to have furniture that we don't have to cover with old towels.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I'm still looking for PeeWee that went missing 25 years ago. Sometimes I see him in a cat food commercial, and I'm glad he attained some sort of fame, instead of actually dying which people have tried to convince me of after a couple of decades went by. Damn cats.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Added to my post above: I rarely comment on your blogs, but I do read every dang one. Thanks for the laughs, or the tears. Both are fine with me.

    ReplyDelete
  24. You are most welcome, Anonymous. Although I've seen your name a lot before. And not to worry--Pee Wee isn't dead. He's at the farm, playing with the other kitties.

    ReplyDelete
  25. How have I missed your blog until now? Thanks so much for the comment and bread crumb trail; I'm delighted to be here. It was a poodle, not a cat, for me, but I do entirely share your skepticism about "vaporous spiritual miasma." And I very much admire your unsentimental appreciation of the encounter with Larry II; an instance of functioning sensory and emotional memory, recognition, coincidence...these things comprise no proof of reincarnation and are ephemerae--not building blocks for dogma.

    Now, I need your help with a post I've been considering on my mother, the bluebirds, and that damned hawk...

    ReplyDelete
  26. Last Sunday marked 35 years since Rusty, my sweet kittycat, left this place for another one, and I still miss him, even though he slept on my head and kicked me if I tried to reclaim my pillow.I believe he sent a friend along to us a few years ago, when our neighbors adopted a big orange cat who looks just like Rusty and who, inexplicably, decided he was going to live in our house as well as his own. He leaves his house in the morning, trots over to ours, meows at the front door, and hangs out until it's time to head back to his other family.They come back to us in mysterious ways, but they do come back.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Though you miss Larry how many wonderful years you two had together. Keep him close to you in your heart and thoughts, which I know you do. What a lovely tribute to him. We never get over the loss, they change who we are once we open up for love.
    Sending best wishes to you and your family across the miles as you celebrate Thanksgiving Day!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh gosh, simply adorable. I need CATS ANON.

    Happy Thanksgiving :}

    ReplyDelete
  29. Sniff. I love the photo of you with Larry so much. Beautiful with short hair. And as long as it is now, that must've been quite awhile ago.

    And I love how certain animals come along and instantly connect with you--it's as if with the first look you both know that you love each other completely and unreservedly. I've experienced it with a couple of dogs--both greyhounds, oddly--making me think for a few benighted years I must have one. And then along came Baker, whom I bought over the Intertubes in utero, just somehow knowing.
    I wish you another Larry. And happy Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  30. No matter how long we have them, it's never long enough. I absolutely believe that was Larry. Bonds of the heart are never broken.

    Happy Thanksgiving, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Such a sweet and mysterious tale for Thanksgiving. Missing my Paintbrush and Camille, who I always said knew all my stories since she moved with me soon after college to three separate cities and through multiple boyfriends. She always knew when I was steering in the wrong direction.

    I've had a few cats run up to me on the street like that before. I always wonder what they think. I'm glad you had such an encounter too.

    ReplyDelete
  32. That was no coincidence, Murr. Happy Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  33. As you said, everyone has their own
    interpretation. We all believe in different signs. I'm the one who sees the number 11, all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  34. This made me cry -- the look on your cat's face in that picture is so sweet.

    I lost a truly amazing cat last year, and I do not use the word 'amazing' lightly. She sat with me through all sorts of awful things, through rejection letter after rejection letter and draft after draft. She was a little sycophantic -- she thought everything I did was utterly superb and frequently told me so with slavish adoration -- but she really meant it, so I forgave her. She would sit on my lap for hours while I wrote and be happy with the odd tummy rub.

    The two cats we've got now don't make it as lap cats. I still miss my faithful cat so much.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Maybe your old cat had better judgment than all those publishers. I'd bet the ranch. My current cat will not sit on my lap while I'm writing, but she is happy to stand on the keyboarddddddddddd. When I eject her, she paces on the floor and says "nobody cares about the clever turn of phrase crap. Punch that up a little. Needs mice."

    ReplyDelete
  36. Murr, you are such fun to be around! By the way, my name is anonymous the fiftieth, perhaps...

    ReplyDelete
  37. The Anonymous family is a big one, for sure. Thanksgiving dinners must be an ordeal at the Anonymous house.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Cats are magical. I have no doubt that was Larry.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Sheesh...all this sentiment. How come nobody asks why a girl cat was named Larry??? OK...I'll ask. How come, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  40. The agreement Dave and I had was if I was going to have to have a cat, he got to name it. Both Larry and Tater were named before they were born and picked out. He didn't like cats. It might have been a little passive-aggressive. Now he's bonkers over the critters.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Such a sweet and mysterious tale for Thanksgiving. Missing my Paintbrush and Camille, who I always said knew all my stories since she moved with me soon after college to three separate cities and through multiple boyfriends. She always knew when I was steering in the wrong direction.

    I've had a few cats run up to me on the street like that before. I always wonder what they think. I'm glad you had such an encounter too.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Though you miss Larry how many wonderful years you two had together. Keep him close to you in your heart and thoughts, which I know you do. What a lovely tribute to him. We never get over the loss, they change who we are once we open up for love.
    Sending best wishes to you and your family across the miles as you celebrate Thanksgiving Day!

    ReplyDelete
  43. I'm still looking for PeeWee that went missing 25 years ago. Sometimes I see him in a cat food commercial, and I'm glad he attained some sort of fame, instead of actually dying which people have tried to convince me of after a couple of decades went by. Damn cats.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Oh Tony, honey. She's not calling you Woody after her cat.

    Tiffin: do we all have stuffed ventricles now? We are such saps. Lucky us.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Spirits do live on. My wife sometimes calls me Woody, her old cat's name.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Space-time, string, whatever...maybe you just got treated to a glimpse of one of Larry's other nine lives! Happy Thanksgiving, M.! Somewhere, Gaugin and Lord H. are smiling over this post. Me too, Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  47. Believing that I have a soul, I DO believe that animals have souls too. I do somewhat fear a reunion in the great beyond though. With all the cats that I've had in my life will I be tagged the Crazy Cat Spirit Lady(Spirit)???

    Unbelievably sweet photo of you and Larry...

    ReplyDelete
  48. I have oft wondered if it was physically possible to laugh and cry at the same time...this blog post was the perfect experimental vehicle to test the hypothesis. Just in case anyone was wondering, the result was a resounding yes. And, as an unexpected side discovery, a heart can be warmed, and yet also break a bit simultaneously. We animal lovers are such a sentimental breed. I don't know if we can ever give back all they give us, but I think Larry may have just stopped by to say 'Thanks for the comfy spot in your heart'.

    Now I'm all gooey, and will have to share large quantities of Thanksgiving dinner with all our furry kids.

    ReplyDelete
  49. That incident would have converted me and pretty sure I would be on the ten most wanted catnappers list.
    So glad you got to be touched from beyond.

    ReplyDelete
  50. As an animal lover, I've frequently had the experience of thinking that a former beloved pet's spirit has somehow returned to me in a new pet. Like you, I'm inclined to disbelieve that interpretation, yet still I marvel in the wonders of the unexplained mysteries of life and the wonders of a pet's love. Thank you for a story which explores such mysterious without any heavy handed, forced interpretations. I think it's sufficient just to ponder these mysteries and feel thankful for them. Happy Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete