Dance Rudi, Dance!
Metamorphosis
I am the Cat which battled heroically on the night when the enemies of the Setting Sun were overwhelmed. And who is this Cat? This Cat is the Sun-God Ra himself...
Alas. My elegant gentleman friend is gone.
He will dance no more.
Just as he began to leap
at life again, to relish it again,
it turned. So quickly as to take
my breath away.
His body, so frail he'd always
walked carefully for as long as I've
known him, grown fragile now
as old lace, had started to
mend. My hands could feel less
rib, more flesh, daily.
I got my hugs again.
(This is not metaphor: he did put his
arms around your neck, held you cheek
to cheek.) Hugs from an elegant 101 year old
gentleman are glorious! And he
was a miser of hugs. Few earned them.
He was, also, a tyrant. Two kinds
of his favorite food, each in its
own dish. With another for the tuna.
He did not drink stale water,
and defined stale as four hours old.
He'd drink yours if the glass was wide enough.
And should you forget his litter box for
half a day too long, he'd howl at you:
There must be standards!
He knew he was descended
from Gods.
But too, he was perhaps
the only cat who had
ever learned to hug a human.
Or who could send email. And did,
regularly. Poems usually.
Just as joy was returning,
he stumbled. He fell.
And did not rise again.
I held him, his breath as shallow
as a tear and as clear. And
then, just gone.
He was a great soul. He was
my friend. He was the
cat of my heart.
~~ Julie Li
~~ Julie Li
5 comments:
puddle, so sorry about ♥Rudi♥ :(
For Rudi
The love?
It was rudimentary.
The giving?
Deliciously mutual.
Sleeping in the sun?
It was mandatory!
Those little hugs?
They were so big.
The tear in my eye?
A testament to fullness.
The love that remains?
The bridge that unites
Two hearts.
Lenny, that was BEAUTIFUL!!
Thank you. I just sent it to Edwin.
This is just beautiful Puddle. Surely he was an aristocrat. My Caroline Elizabeth was more of the tribe of rabble rousers--a delightful tortoise with a stripe down her nose.
Thanks for this.
Rudi was that. Russian Blue -- the statue of Bast is nearly identical in general body shape. His sleeping basket was atop a tall book case. Edwin says as a young cat he could and did make it from the floor to the top in one leap. By the time I knew him, the basket was beyond his reach -- he settled for couch and bed.
I had a tortie once, paled out to peach and pale gray. Best hunter I've ever known. Named Sadie. I was always removing live birds from her mouth. But yanno -- I never actually saw her eating, or even injuring any of her prey. Catch and release cat she was.
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