Thanks, Fuzzy

I've had a chance to tell most of you who knew him well, so now I think I can finally talk about it here. It was a bad weekend.

On Friday night A and I had to make the decision to have Fionn put to sleep. He would have turned 5 this summer. Fionn was a rescue cat - I was reminded by C that among other possible horrors I rescued him from his name given by the kind people at the Humane Society - Giovanni. (Apologies to all the Giovannis out there - it just wasn't right.) He jumped up on my lap in the meet-the-cats room at the Humane Society and started purring and knocking his head into mine. He was gregarious, and made people who didn't think they liked cats fall in love. He led a good short life.

Here he is with S and me, not long after he came home. (Note the nail polish - this secures the fact that it was just post-Halloween.) He loved to be held in any position... sideways, right side-up, upside-down, all 3 in quick succession, as long as he was in contact.




He had the chance to marvel at German snowflakes.




He helped me edit my masters thesis.



He charmed a big hulking heavy-stuff-mover at the Frankfurt airport. I was moving back home and had two enormous bags, a large cardboard box, a backpack, and Fionn. I could just barely pretend to manage all of it and a very kind airport hefter came to my aid moving everything through one of the screener machines for me. I was quite nervous about Fionn and all my things and suddenly couldn't see the man anywhere. I realized he was crouched down with his nose to Fionn's cage making cooing noises through the wires.

Fionn perfected the art of couch-diving.







We think Fionn was probably never properly weaned, since his greatest comfort was sleeping on top of a person, sucking on their shirt. He would just close his eyes and look like all was right with the world.

He was always happiest close to the action. Fionn had his own straight-backed chair in the living room here and whenever there were guests he was most likely to be found sitting on it paying close attention to the conversation. (Sounds like stories of me when I was a baby, when I was happiest falling asleep on a blanket in the middle of the floor when my parents were still up and especially if there were guests.)




We shared a love of nooks and books.




He was a good reminder of how to relax.






He listened nearby when I played flute and as with everything else, was totally curious. I remember for the first few months when he was still small and not so used to the sound, he would climb up on the nearest chair or table and put a paw over onto my knee and stick his face right across the embouchure from my nose to see where the sound was coming from.




A mechanical metronome was total fascination.




Bags and boxes were always to be investigated (yes, he is in all 3 pictures).




I'll miss being greeted at the door every day, and having him lay across my arms every time I work with my laptop on my lap.

Thanks, Fuzzy.