What can you say about a fourteen-year-old cat who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved rubs and singing, Pounce, and her dad? (ok, I completely lifted that entire intro - kind of - from Love Story.)
I am sure I'm biased by saying she was the best cat ever! If not the best, she sure ranked up there. I actually drafted this earlier and it sounded eerily familiar. I looked back and I wrote much of our history w/Kylie on a post on 5/8/06 - her 14th bday. I'll try not to repeat that post - but feel free to go back and look at it.
She was one of the cutest kittens I had ever seen. That is she, against the brick in the top picture. Her little ears not as perky as they would turn out to be. Her colouring darker than what would it eventually be.
You can get a better idea of how she'd turn out by the bottom picture (her in the middle). Her pattern was gorgeous - down to the black tip of her tail, the one black bottom of a paw, and two black whiskers in a sea of white ones. (click on images to make them bigger!)
I know cats are supposed to be aloof and independent, but most of the time Kylie wasn't that way. When we moved into the new house a year or so ago, instead of hiding (which is what Tovah did), Kylie followed us around the house. We actually gave her a tour. She was much more comfortable w/her new surroundings.
She loved being by us - though she liked her alone time. She was the cat who could sleep anywhere, and would (see below).
Any of the bedrooms were fair game. Any couch or chair was hers. She loved sleeping under a desk lamp as Denton worked all day long. She loved the warmth and being next to him. But she'd just as easily sleep in the output tray of the printer and she would on something soft....and usually would hit the 'test' button in the process. I'm not sure how many wasted sheets of paper we went through due to her naptime. It was all worth it.
She (along w/her sister) made our house a home - and us a family. We got up in the night when they were ill. We worried about them and wondered what they were doing when we traveled. We'd watch them play, eat and sleep as if they were our children - which is really what she was.
Kylie was the silent alpha cat. No fights. No hissing. She just WAS. Tovah had a cat admirer (Smokey) with whom she'd have rows. She'd charge the screen door. Smokey wouldn't even flinch. But Kylie would come by and look at him - just look - and he'd be out of there in an instant.
There was not a day that went by that we didn't appreciate Kylie being with us and tell her so. We loved her and she loved us. This I know.
We will have other pets in our future, but we'll only have one Kylie...and she'll always be with us.
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