Blog reader, friends and family come in please…..It is with the greatest difficulty and the heaviest of hearts that I begin this blog today. Let it be known that on Thursday, July 2nd at 10:45, Able Seacat Patience Adams, 1st mate on the vessel Domino, laid down her favorite toy, a little blue mousie for the last time and ended her adventure and her time with Andrew and me at the age of 18.5. We pulled into a lovely little anchorage in Glacier Bay amazingly called, (AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS PART), Blue Mouse Cove. We are both stunned at the coincidence. As far as we could tell she did not suffer. It appeared to us that she had a stroke. She passed quietly wrapped up in one of my comfy fleece jackets and swaddled in the arms of her daddy. I held her paw and told her that we loved her and that she was the best little kitty. She closed her eyes, took a final breath and then her little kitty heart just stopped beating.
Patience was a very well-traveled kitty. She lived in several states, she made car trips across the country, saw foreign countries and she saw the great inside passage and reached the northern most point of our adventure. I don’t know many kitties that have actually seen humpback whales, orcas, dolphins, eagles, seals, sea otters, and birds of land and sea. She saw glaciers, mountains, prairies, farmland and the ocean. She was a valued, appreciated, and loved member of the Domino crew and without her this adventure would not have been the same. She made friends with everyone who visited her house or boat. A well placed little scratch under her chin and you were introduced to the best little cat purr motor I have ever heard. She enjoyed being appreciated and we loved that about her.
We became her family 18 years ago after she was found orphaned in a ditch and rescued by a kind hearted preschooler on a walk with her family. Racheal Bradley understood she was a special kitty and lobbied to keep her. She already had several kitties of her own so she reluctantly offered her to Andrew. Andrew and I were dating at the time and at the time he was known as Cyber-boy to Rachael and Rebekah. This was nickname assigned to Andrew by the girls which to them described his ability to talk to me via my computer (better known as email.) Andrew had begun to appreciate the coolness of cats after knowing my cat Simon. She was always a very small cat but her personality was one of a giant! She taught Andrew quickly that she could communicate and would let him know when she was frustrated with him or that he did something the wrong way. She was loved from the minute that she was found and to Andrew it was love at first sight. He loved the fact that the baby kitty had been given an endorsement of the Bradley girls as well.
When Rachael finally permitted Andrew to take her home she told him that he would need to love her and hug her so she would not miss her mommy. Andrew could not resist her from the very start and spoiled her terribly from the first day and every day thereafter. It took him about three days to name her and as I recall it had something to do with the way she would meow when she needed him to move faster when he fed her or gave her a treat. He called me one evening and said that he had chosen the perfect name as it was an interesting contradiction to the new female in his home. He names her Patience and I agreed that this was the perfect name.
Patience trained Andrew to turn on the water faucet when she wanted water and was not having any of this cat dish business. I know that he will never be able to turn on a faucet without thinking of her and her plaintive demands for service from the tap. (We solved this problem on the boat by buying a special kitty water fountain that ran constantly so she would feel like it was a real sink all her own.) We will miss those amazing moments when she would forget that she was an independent lioness and presented herself to be cuddled between Andrew and me. In fact this morning was one of those wonderful moments. It has been a rainy night and it was damp and wet and she climbed into the bunk with us, snuggled under the covers and spent the morning cuddling so we all slept late. There will never be a replacement for being lulled to sleep by that wonderful, intoxicating, and heartwarming purrrrrr of hers.
The running dialogue in our house went like this, “Andrew, give her what she wants because she is the best kitty ever”, to which Andrew always respond rolling his eyes, “yes, she is, when it pleases her.” She loved to spend time with Andrew and he would carry her sprawled over his arm like a small child, interaction that she would only permit with Andrew. When she did not feel well or feeling blue she would always make her way to me and when Andrew was not looking and she was sure that she could not be seen or judged she would allow me to snuggle her up and watch TV or take a nap. She also liked to binge watch HBO shows, most recently a “Game of Thrones” fan. When Andrew would give her a single treat she would turn to me and complain as if to ask for help to explain to Andrew that a single treat simply did not befit her station and I would scold him and give her many.
She is and will always be the best little kitty ever and the Domino will not be the same without her. There are no words adequately to describe how much she will be missed and how our hearts are breaking. She takes a piece of Andrew and me with her and leaves a hole in both of our hearts that we will never be able to fill.
I have known Patience almost as long as I have known Andrew. Patience was part of our courtship and has been with us through our entire marriage. So I think you see now that we are devastated that we have lost a loved member of the family today. We will miss her forever and we hope that she is treated appropriate to her station in heaven and enjoys many, many, many treats (ten times the quantity that mommy always gave her) and that she get a brand new special blue mousie.
Weather today:
Hard to say as it is raining inside the boat and inside our hearts.
This is the Domino, with the ship’s flag flying half staff and standing by on channel 68.