I really like Facebook’s memory feature because it reminds me daily of many happy events. This morning for instance it showed to me that exactly seven years ago I adopted Canavar – at the time he was a scrawny little cat that usually avoided contact with human beings. When I met him, he immediately jumped into my arms and let me feed him. I still believe that it was love at first sight. While I believed and still think that he was the cutest little thing, everybody else only saw his too long legs, too big ears, too small head.
I took the little black cat with me by bus from Bodrum to Istanbul. Ever since he has been an indoor cat. We survived his puberty (basically as much fun as pubescent teenagers, i.e. none). Together we have moved four times already and always gotten used to the apartments. He even flew next me – or rather next to my feet – with me all the way to the U.S. when we resettled. He once got lost for a week in an Istanbul basement and another time I ended up in the ER because he scratched me badly while I walked him on a leash outside.
Nowadays we are way more sophisticated (that’s what living in Cambridge does to you). We sometimes take walks outside, i.e. I push Canavar in his leopard patterned cat stroller and he excitedly watches everything from his safe position. Last school year he even came to school with me several times. For him it is a new place to explore and the kids usually learn very fast to be quiet and calm around him. He even starred in science class. I had offered to bring him in because I obviously didn’t think that a cat skeleton in the science room was sufficient to teach about alive cats. The kids loved him and that class. Oh, and Canavar’s favorite toy these days is a laser pointer. He tries to catch the red dot almost every day. His latest passion is to watch Manfred, our robot vacuum while sitting on the highest kitchen shelf.
Some days I am still a little surprised myself that I have managed to keep a cat alive and in great shape for seven years already. But maybe he thinks the same thing about keeping me as his human mom. I still feel bad about leaving him alone for more than three hours at a time. He still snaps regularly at my ankles. Then again, I even took him to the vet this spring to have his teeth cleaned so that they will remain pointy and healthy for as long as possible. Canavar sleeps next to me or on my legs most nights, he meows whenever I arrive home, and usually he follows me around the apartment like a little dog. As if he never got the memo that he is a cat. I think he is just fabulous. And even as a cat of almost seven and a half years, to me he looks young and agile. I keep my fingers and his fluffy paws crossed that we’ll have a lot more multiple seven years together.
© janavar.net
