Why the Dying Need Pillows

If you were to ask me what you could do for the dying, I would answer: pillows.

I know it is a strange answer. It is the best answer I know. I am good at pillows. I know every kind of pillow made. I know which pillow is best for what. I am a pillow expert. It comes from being in pain so much in so many places. The best ones are the microbead pillows until they get a hole and then it's microbeads everywhere including the ceiling.

What brought me to pillows today is our ancient cat Prescious is passing away. He is over 30 (thirty) years old. In human years that makes him over 200 years old. His back legs stopped working well over a year ago and most people would have given him the needle, but he found a way to drag himself and at times to brace them and even manage a jump. He is a fighter, so much unlike his first owner.

Prescious was spotted in hugging the side of the concrete median, too small to make it up on the median strip, in the middle of an eight lane highway. His future human manage to avoid being killed, reached him and carried him home in her blouse. She fed him, doted on him and with boy friend of dubious quality and he grew up, and up and up into a gigantic cat that has been know to strike fear into workmen when he charged them. He lived on a horse farm and enjoyed the life of an outside cat playing in pastures, chasing dragon flies and living on his own terms except of course, he was neutered.

Then the unthinkable happened to him and his owner. It was day of her potential suicide I met her as she had decided to consult a psychic and as it turned out, I was the cheapest one and cost exactly the amount of money she had left in her wallet. Her love of her life soul mate, whom she had supported, bought little trinkets like a boat, had cleaned out her bank account after taking the boat to be “repaired” in her new car and her lovely landlords noting he was not available to do their maintenance had given her an eviction notice of one week and just to put the cherry on top of that, the church she made the majority of her money cleaning decided an unmarried woman could not be allowed to clean their sacred space or that was what they told her. What my cards said was this lout had gone to the landlord and her customers and given them a song a dance about how horrible she was, gotten her fired, evicted and left on the corner with 4 dogs and 2 cats. Prescious was one of the cats which had to be removed or the owner would kill all of her pets at the end of the week.

Then the cards said two things. She would have a job by the end of the day, be a millionaire and be married within 6 months. I laid those cards out 3 times as I could not believe it. Every time, the same cards came up. Well, number one, jobs were hard to come by and she was crying and claiming she was going to kill herself as soon as she left my shop. That was when I remembered the night before the manager at a now defunct restaurant had been telling us how he needed a waitress right then and couldn't keep staff. I sent her down there and she was working within minutes and earning good tips because she was a genuinely pleasant, helpful person.

A week later I received a call from her with a creature from some level of Hell screaming like a deranged banshee in the background. Prescious was losing what was left of his kitty mind, throwing himself into the windows and doors and she had the dogs and cats hidden in an apartment that didn't allow animals. I agreed to take Prescious as I didn't need another suicide attempt....and a little while later my adopted mom, who was watching the shop, called, hysterical, that a woman was there with a wild cat: a HUGE wild cat.

Well, I did something I never do, and gave directions to my house as I was being assured the carrier was not going in my car if I removed the back of it...and anyway...in for a penny, in for a pound..I was not getting rid of this woman. So, in a huge pickup came Prescious in the biggest carrier I have ever seen. It must have been designed for a Great Dane. I reached in and grabbed the cause of all my pain and suffering and pulled, and pulled and pulled out a cat that stretched over my shoulder left me staggering under his weight. That evening George's only comment would be, “What the Hell is that?”

Oddly, Prescious stopped howling at everything, stopped trying to break the windows and seldom tried to get out. He seemed to need a weekly walk around the yard and the worship of a flock of cats. Yes, all the other cats worshiped him and I am certain he regaled them not only with stories of his former life but of his excursions into the yard. I am also certain he lied like a dirty dog and exaggerated as well. The cats worshiped him. I never saw a cat lift a paw or hiss at him. He was the good will ambassador of all catdome.

I knew he was seven years old. He out lived my mother, father and adopted mother. He watched me turn 40, 50 and 60. Finally, I went to the vet to check out his date of arrival as I had him checked out that week and he asked me if I wanted to remove that chart. I asked why and he said, surely this cat is not alive. Well, the next week he got to operate on his ear and the next year, the other ear and 10 years later, Prescious was still with us and approaching 26 years. He is now over 30 years old and not going over that rainbow bridge without a fight.

But, the fight is almost gone from him. For three days he has been diapered, spoon fed and today he is unable to crawl, but he is lucid and a little demanding. That is where the pillows come into play. George has tried to make him comfy, but alas Prescious has not lost the ability to complain, loudly. Thus I was left with him in the kitchen. He demanded I stop washing dishes as running water upsets him so I finally sat down with him. He was not happy and I noticed the box was cutting into his head, so I went into the bathroom and got a wash cloth and made him a pillow.

He was so happy and I thought, every day we carry this old cat outside for his walk and I bet he wants one. I picked up his box and managed to get him and myself outside in one piece. He is still a big, heavy cat and this may not have been my brightest idea. Then the mosquitoes attacked my ankles but I managed to carry him around the yard and let him smell the leaves like we do every evening when he let out a blood curdling scream which I took to mean, “STOP!” I froze and box continued to move for a few inches but I got it under control and stayed on my feet. I cautiously looked around to see what had caused this horrible screech and low and behold, in discarded pot was a catnip plant, blooming and struggling for life. I picked a leaf, while almost dropping the cat and a tiny baby lizard popped up and looked a Prescious. It nodded its little head and bounced off a few leaves and went off to do lizard things. I managed to stick the leaf under Prescious's nose and get him and myself back to the kitchen in one piece. By then he was pretty mellowed out.

Now he is on the bed in his box, next to me as I write this. I have promised if he makes it to morning, I will take him out to see the sun rise. If he doesn't, I have made him 2 pillows now to ease the pressure on his old bones and as he moans, I can reach over and scratch his old head, like I have for so many years...but alas, the cool temperature of my bedroom aggravated his arthritis so I had to move him back to the hot kitchen.

I figured out how to hold him so he can drink his own water and mooook (milk). He is too weak to chew so maybe a little broth is on tonight's menu.

He has watched me sift the Kefir. I had to stand to one side so he could watch. He watched me wash the blue berries and sort them from the ones gone bad. I learned in this instance of taking care of Prescious and sorting fruit that I always sort the good fruit out with my left hand...and pick the bad berries with my right. That's something I shall remember at the U-pick. The blackberries are sorted. He hated the noise the manual cherry seeder made but we got through the whole box with minimal stops for petting to calm him. He watched me blend the kefir and cherries and insisted on a smell of the chia seeds.

Now that George has returned from shopping, he is taking him for a bit so I can rest and cool down.

Did I mention she met the millionaire the next month while cleaning houses and he fell in love with her? The dogs got a state of the art air conditioned kennel...She was going to not marry him because he didn't want the dogs in the house. I explained that with million dollar vases and art work, I could totally understand and it sounded like the dogs were getting digs than she currently had.

Did I mention I didn't even get a dollar tip? Come to think of it, I didn't even get paid for the phone consultation on the marriage proposal. However, I shall see her cat into the Summerlands where so many of mine await him because now he is ours. And ours he will be for eternity. He is the tiny little Prescious ball of plain tabby fur with the huge clear green eyes who grew into a tiger. Soon he will be that again, stalking his catnip plants in rainbow fields.

She wasn't well educated and didn't know how to spell precious is why his name is misspelled.