Thinking About Jack
Posted Sat Apr 23, 2011 in
Family
After a couple of rough days, I’m OK. Losing Jack so suddenly was pretty hard on me. Young Son suffered some too, but he recovered more quickly than I did.
Some good friends had good words on my Facebook page. John said:
They bring everything to the table, all that they are, and they ask for little. Very few relationships can compare. Understanding what has been lost becomes the definition of ‘hard.’
Of all the words that came, those were the words that best expressed the loss I felt when Jack died. I had not felt that badly since the departure of Daughter and Grandsons in 2005. It was that kind of loss.
Another quote I thought I’d share is from one of the handlers at Jack’s boarding kennel. She said, “He draws you in with that sweet little meow of his… then he gets-ya!”
She was right — Jack had a sweet little meow in his tenor voice. He was always pissed at us for leaving him at the kennel. He didn’t want to be at the kennel. He didn’t like change or anything different. He didn’t like being around all those… STRANGERS!
One of my funny-Jack stories goes like this:
One evening Wife and I were changing the sheets on our King-size bed. Because we had it stripped, I went ahead and turned the mattress over. The mattress pad and covers where laying on the floor. Jack noticed something different and crept up to the corner of the covers, stretching out to see them and inspecting.
I waited until he was close, then tugged at the corner, causing them to shift. BOING!!! — Jack bounced backward in startled cat mode.
He approached again, slowly, carefully… only for me to repeat the process.
BOING!!! — Jack bounced back again.
He repeated this process three or four times before giving up in frustration and darting from the room, followed by my belly-laughing.
Another of my funny-Jack stories is about a laser pointer. We (both of us) had more fun with that for a long time. He would go after it — pat-pat-pat… pat-pat — on the floor. Then, tail crooked in frustrated-cat mode, he’d dash off into the other room — only to return after a few minutes, searching for the red bug.
I believe he knew I was the driver all along. But, he loved the game and never gave up easily.
The image is one Wife made of Jack and me early one morning. We were still living in Texas. Jack would come into my workroom early (I rose about 0500 then), crawl up into my arms, and sleep on his back cradled like a baby — except for the purring; babies don’t purr.
Sometimes I slept too. Between the purring and his heat, I sometimes got sleep too.
Kitties are important people too.
— Brooke 30 April 2011, 04:55 #