Way back in 1994 I went to a parking lot on the south side of the Twin Cities to a Humane Society outdoor pet adoption event. I wasn’t intending to get a Cat, just wanted to take a look around. In one of the first cages, a runt of a calico clawed her way to the top of the cage to get to me. I picked her up and she clung to me like glue. I put her back in her cage and she followed me around the cage no matter where I went, never taking her eyes off me.
I think it’s safe to say she picked me.
I brought her home and after watching her stand up on her hind legs and attempt to roar, I named her Bear.
From then on, Bear was a joyful part of my life. I mention her here because of her love of watching me and other people in the various offices over the years work on computers. She was often a part of the work day. I started my first business in a home office, and Bear was there every single day as I got things rolling.
As a kitten, she would stare at the screen and swipe away at imagined enemies moving across the screen. As she got older, she laid on top if the old CRT monitors (remember those?) whenever she wanted to. Without saying a word, Bear had declared that those monitors were officially her personal butt warmer. Any attempt to move said Cat from her personal butt warmer would be met with swift scorn.
It was a tough couple weeks for Bear when we finally ditched the last CRT monitor and got all flat screens. She spent days walking around monitors wondering how in the heck she was supposed to lay on that. Several times she did try to jump on top of them, only to go right over the other side, picker herself up and promptly pretend that never happened.
I could go on about how she was an excellent mouser, how she made fun of my singing, laughed at the inferiority of dogs who ate poop from her litter box, had several freak outs per day (I have to be in the other room- NOW!), was great at taking naps whenever I felt like one and always ate the stinkiest thing on the menu.
She was around for 16 years, so I have a lot of great memories. A few weeks ago she started getting ill, and after several painful and stressful (for her) treatments she only went down hill. Unable to eat or drink for days, she wasn’t moving, wasn’t talking and wasn’t going to get any better.
This morning her pain and suffering thankfully came to an end, but man am I going to miss that little animal. So long Bear – thanks for picking me.
