Tux

In Memoriam⚑

In my life, I have been lucky enough to own (or share a home with) three dogs and four cats. It's always sad to see one of them go. Recently, we had to put one of them down. She was 17 years old and lived a very happy life. She was the most cat-like cat I've ever owned. She was skittish around people, napped a lot during the day by herself in the sun, and was full of energy and playful in the evenings.

Everyone who has ever owned a pet knows that even though the love may be shared around a family, the pet usually has someone who they have a special bond with. This one happened to be mine. She sat only in my lap, would listen paid attention to only me, was really only interested in hanging out with me and was really.. well.. mine.

She was not very smart, though. She was the one that played with all the toys, chased all the things, jumped on top of all the things and ran around the house in circles bumping into things along the way. She always fell for the fake food sounds when we needed to get her somewhere.

The other remaining cat loves to be outside and has no interest in running off, so she spends a lot of time outside in the yard with us. Unfortunately, this kitty was always a flight risk. She is easily spooked and we were always worried to let her outside at all for fear she would run off and not be able to figure out how to get back. The few times she did sneak out onto the back deck, she would end up underneath it and we'd have to coax her out. Because of this, she didn’t like the backyard and so it didn’t seem appropriate to commemorate her there.

Most of all, she was the inspiration for the name of my garden. One evening I was working in my office towards the end of her life, and she came for my attention. I was able to lift her with one hand at this point and as I picked her up, the name just came to me.

Every time I contemplate the name of my garden, it now has even more of a special meaning.