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R.I.P. "Blacky" = 2000 - 2016
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Blacky
showed up at Nicole's place when she was posted to Pretoria, South Africa in
2001 |
Nicole's
mother was visiting at the time and suggested that they give the cat some food
... since it was quite friendly |
He
belonged to a neighbor who had many pets; with their approval he became part
of Nicole's household |
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Blacky
was always fixated with computers; because of the mouse? |
Most
likely it was the heat that was generated; he was a terrible typer! |
He
especially hated when Nicole would chat with someone other than him |
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Blacky has traveled
the world with Nicole and has seen more places than most people: |
- South Africa
(4 years)
- Venezuela (3)
- Israel (4)
- Colombia (3)
- Zimbabwe (2) |
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As with most cats,
Blacky's favorite pastime was to lounge around. This was especially the
case since in the three postings after South Africa, Nicole had apartments
instead of houses; he had no yard to explore nor to "protect"!
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His highest
priority was to find the warmth of the sun ... or in hotter climates, a place
where the sun had recently been
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His
favorite chair |
His
favorite stack of cushions |
His
favorite heater |
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His
Favorite Blanket |
His
Favorite Rug |
His
Favorite Box ... ?? |
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Many times we could
not find where he was ... he liked black material and would blend right in ...
unless I used a light!
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He enjoyed newly
washed clothes ... |
... our favorite
chairs/pillows ...
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... and sometime
tissue paper ... ?
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Blacky was smart
and good at Suduko |
He even read the
German magazines |
He could also
stretch quite tall when offered tuna ...
... his favorite
treat that he could smell from the furthest place in which he was lounging!
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<== Since Nicole
mostly lived in apartments, she grew cat grass,
which Blacky loved to lick & eat
He protected the
grass from ==>
the birds which would frequent the terraces. Only a few times did he
bring Nicole a feathery present ... not nice!
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Blacky
liked consistency and hated when the family had to move |
He
sensed when a transfer was forthcoming and would hide in corners |
We tried to make
things as comfortable as possible for the poor boy
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The flights and
layovers between the postings were painful, for Blacky & us.
Since Nicole's transfers always
involved multiple flights, we could sometimes collect Blacky and have him be
with us during the layovers ... which was not fun for anyone.
Luckily he was good natured and
didn't try to run around the airport lounges! |
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Unfortunately,
during the transfer to Zimbabwe, Blacky experienced a trauma which caused
him to go totally blind.
Happily, he used his other
senses to enjoy the freedom of having a large yard to explore once
again.
He navigated quite well ...
although he did fall into the swimming pool once. He avoided the sound
of the pool filter motor after that!
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Blacky never had a
favorite part of the Zim yard ... he just went where he wanted ... which was
probably somewhat warm
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Sometimes he protected
the woodpile |
Other times he
protected the trees |
Obviously he didn't
care about posture |
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Blacky never had nice fur, most likely due to a snake bit in his youth ...
... but in Zim, his hair filled out and began to change color
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Obviously, this aspect of his body
enjoyed being back in Africa ... should we have changed his name to
Brownie?
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In Zimbabwe, two
stray cats began to show up and they adopted us. Both were originally
adopted by a neighbor, but they liked our place better since we don't have
dogs. We surmise that the black cat is the father of the cute gray girl.
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Since Blacky has
not interfaced with another cat in over 10 years, we were not surprised that
he wasn't happy that there were other cats around.
In the beginning he could sense
when the other cats were around and he would swing his paw in their direction,
maybe to show some kind of dominance ... but after a short time he would then
go and sit by them ...
... on his own will and all by smell! |
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The
"kids" were great with Blacky, as they probably could sense that he
was a harmless "old fart".
Once they picked out a place to
lounge, they didn't care if Blacky would join them ... but he never got too
close.
The kids would frequently clean
each other, but Blacky never joined in.
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In the past,
Blacky would spend a great majority of his time next to us, but in Zim, he
decided to spend most of his time outside and around the other
cats.
The only time this created a problem was when we fed them, as they
would ==>
all run around in the same area ... confusing to us & them alike! |
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Over the past few
months Blacky has experienced "episodes" where he would be totally
disoriented or unable to walk properly ... but it would only last for a day or
so. We figured he had mini-strokes and recovered from each, but always a
bit weaker; we knew his days were limited. Because of his frail nature,
we decided to curtail any trips and mainly stayed at home for the past 18
months ... which is totally unlike us. Luckily the property is nice and
we didn't mind staying home.
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Then, during the
early days in April we saw a dramatic decrease in the amount of Blacky's
activity ... not eating or drinking much ... and his normal body functions
were not operating correctly (navigation, cleaning, toliet use, etc.).
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Yesterday was the coldest and wettest day that we had for 18 months, so I started a fire and got our lounge area nice and toasty warm.
We placed Blacky on a soft blanket and we both spent the
morning with him.
At one point he tried to get up and he just stumbled around in circles. We decided
that we needed to take him to the vet, which scared me.
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I was fearful that
Blacky would not return form the vet visit, so I put his favorite quilt on my lap and held him for a bit in front of the
fire.
Usually he would enjoy this for
hours, but this time he could not sit still.
We tried feeding him, putting him
outside, on the toilet, etc... but nothing worked out ...
... so off to the Vet we went.
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The Vet confirmed
our worst fears and we came back home with an empty carrier ... and heavy
hearts.
R.I.P.
"Blacky"
2000 -
2016
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