Today I said goodbye to part of my family, my little grey girl Buki. Like it is with anyone’s loss, sometimes they need just to tell a few things about their loved one. Buki was born in the backseat of my car. Her mom was a stray who was suffering from stress, and she had gotten in through an open window. Buki, the third kitten, was not breathing, so to ease the mother, who was already on her fourth, I held that kitten, massaged her chest and blew into her face.
And she took over from there, as she did for the next 20 years. As a kitten she would hide between pillows and attack my arm as it slithered by. A game known as SNAKE OF DEATH. My favorite was to hide in doorways, call her name and surprise her. She would run, I would hide in another and do it again.
Silly as that is, THANKSGIVING was always ridiculous. I would cook a complete meal just for the animals. The first thing Buki would eat on her plate, even before turkey, was my mashed potatoes. I would always put a dab of butter on them.
When I was ill she would bring her stinky old BEANIE BABIES, that she raised as her own, and put them on my bed. And when she went deaf I would put her on my chest and sing those silly songs I make up. If she couldn’t hear me I thought she could feel me. And she did. She would nuzzle my neck and purr.
The left side of my bed will be empty when I roll over now. I won’t be hearing her meow from upstairs when I am talking in the driveway. Or see her watching me shave in the morning.
But I will keep her things around because MS. AMICHI has lost someone too. Here are some picks of her as a baby, with her babies and as my baby when she was a grownup.
Bye, Buki
By Dean T, Los Angeles, CA. Sent to us by his friend Rob.