The Kaj

Kage Neko (Shadow Cat). What can I say about this cat? Lots, but not much of it is very nice! We have that love-hate relationship… I love to hate him and vice-versa but it’s a very loving hate relationship. My nicknames for him include spawn of satan, cartoon face and el gato feo (the ugly cat). Let’s start at the beginning when our daughter conjured this hairball. Conjured? Yes, conjured. Ray had been asking for another cat. Specifically she wanted a long-hair black boy kitty with green or yellow eyes. This year she was in the Coming of Age program at church, which is a year-long program for 7th and 8th graders where they explore their spirituality. As the finale of the program, these middle schoolers gave a testimonial about their beliefs. Ray’s specifically mentioned magic and mysticism. The following day a teeny tiny kitten appeared on our deck, a deck standing six or seven feet high with steps taller than this little kitty. It was a tiny fluffy ball of black fur with white ear hair. Ray spent the entire day on the back porch with him cradled in her lap because I refused to let it in the house. We already had a cat. She was getting ready to leave *the very next day* to spend the summer with her father. Well, Mom is a softie and eventually gave in to the cuteness. That cuteness was just a ploy. I should have known better! I tease Ryann about her conjuring her cat by calling him “cartoon face” because his face doesn’t quite fit.

Kage is a beautiful cat on the outside. He reminds me of those super models or actors who are drop-dead gorgeous, but are not very nice people. I swear he spends the day thinking of ways to annoy me and others around him. For example, we have a bird house in the middle of our back yard and this summer we have a family living there. You can see mama and papa, tiny little birds, flitting in and out all day long. Kage has taken to sleeping in the yard. He has *never* slept in the middle of the grass. Inside the house we can hear one of the parent birds scolding Kage, a constant chee-chee-chee-chee-chee-chee. I believe Kage fully knows the angst he is causing these birds and gets pleasure from their pain. Kage will position himself in a room so as to bother Ellie Mae because he knows Ellie can’t stand him and she can’t do anything about him. His favorite spot in our bedroom is lounging on our tall chest of drawers taking a bath (aka “kitty yoga”). If anything happens to be in his way, he just pushes it off. He will wait until I walk into a room to begin scratching on the couch or rug.

Shortly after we moved to our new home, we almost lost Kage or at least a part of him. This cat has to be one of the luckiest animals I’ve ever met. Ryann was spending the day with her friend and my son had a soccer tournament scheduled for the weekend. Unfortunately his team didn’t make the cut so we just happened to be home when an awful ruckus erupted outside. If you’ve ever heard a cat fight, you know the sound. Only add barking into the mix. Two dogs had attacked Kage, cornered him before he could get up a tree. As we ran outside, the dogs took off and we found Kage lying listless under a tree. Clark wrapped him in a towel and picked him up. We knew he was hurt because this is a cat who hates to be picked up. He simply lay in Clark’s lap as I drove around on an early Saturday evening, trying to find an open vet. We finally found one getting ready to close. I dropped off Clark then the boys and I went to pick up Ryann, who after losing Daisy was extremely upset. The vet stabilized Kage and recommended an overnight facility to monitor the IV and medications with instructions to bring him back in the morning. They did not think the back leg could be saved. Lots of stress and money later Kage went into surgery Monday morning to have his leg removed. The vet, a different one from the weekend on-call vet, left surgery to call Clark. He thought the leg could be saved. Clark told him that we’d love to save the leg, but we really didn’t have any more money to put into the situation. The vet said he’d do what he could at the quoted price and if later the leg needed to come off he wouldn’t charge us. Now this is a vet who cares for the animal more than the bottom line. This was his last week in the office as he was retiring at the end of the week. I am so thankful we had him in the surgery room with Kage. Fast forward to present day. Kage had one more surgery to remove the pins in his leg, but he has all four legs. When he runs that injured leg will splay out in a funky way, but he jumps and runs and gets around like any other demon cat. He is a little more cautious now and you can see his worry whenever he hears a neighbor dog barking. Perfectly understandable.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N