R.I.P. Willy

In May, 1999, I was sitting with my mother on her front porch in Atascadero, CA, having I believe Stein's Deli sandwiches for lunch. The day was warm and the Flynt's next door had their sprinkler on in their front yard. I started hearing this pitiful little squeal of a cry. After hearing it enough times to be certain it was actually "a thing" I got up out of my chair. I walked down mom's driveway to the street and turned right and walked down the street next door to the end of the Flynt's driveway as the sound seemed to come from that area. There was a juniper bush landscaping plant adjacent to both the driveway and the curb and the sprinkler was wetting it and the periodic cry was coming from within it. After poking inside and feeling around I became aware that a tiny, emaciated, wet, sticker-infused orange kitten was trying to avoid my grabbing. After some effort I grabbed it and it was terrified I was going to hurt it. I pet it and baby-talked it and it soon realized I was rescuing it. That moment of realization was obvious in the expression on the kitten's face and its body language as it seemed to suddenly perk up and get excited and stop trembling. Willy and I were bonded for life. Willy grew up to become Crazy Willy who used to run around like a fuzzy crazy man. We lost not a few cats to the street out front and we were sure he'd get hit by a car someday. Today, Willy died in my arms at the vet's office as he no longer could hold food or water and was wasting away pitifully. It broke my heart but it was indisputably the right thing to do. Mom and I hoped he would die in his sleep at home without need for intervention. Willy had too much life-force for that. Between his first day in our lives and his final nod into twilight today, his life was fully of energy and activity and love. He loved everybody having no cat foes or rivals. He functioned as the glue that held mom and my and later just mom's cat herd together. He always adopted the new kitten(s) in the house. He died the way he lived; enveloped in love. I will never forget you Willy.

*Note: when I can excavate a photo of Willie I shall post it with this memorial.

Picture of the Day - Feline Pâté Box

My little geriatric buddy Willie who is now about 17 years old and getting incredibly feeble and senile is finding wackier resting places all the time it seems. The past several days it was mom's kitchen sink; now it is his discarded pâté catfood box. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - The Long Goodbye

The cat on the left is my old friend Willie. I rescued him from premature parental abandonment from the front yard of my mom's neighbor's yard 17 years ago this May. Ever since I nursed him back to health his first spring, he has worshiped and adored me with an intermission in our friendship only after I moved out of mom's house. During those days of my darkest nights, he was one of the original best cat friends of my life. All the rest are gone now and now he is dying of old age, his body shutting down following his mind's long march into twilight. To the right is my dog Tequila whom I took under my wing 12 years ago this August. My original intent was only keeping her long enough to find her owner after she mysteriously appeared in mom's neighborhood, going from house to house searching for help and home. Over the past year or two I have noticed her decline in both body and mind. She trips on stairs now or wanders not far when she gets loose or wants to turn back on long walks or gets hot much easier on warm days in which she used to thrive,  she can't hear my voice as sharply, her eyes have a little cloudiness in them now, and often she does not seem to understand what I am trying to get her to do when in the past we were a sharp team. I thank God for my being privileged to meet these creatures of His and be their protectors and friends. I hope I have more years left with my dog but my cat is near the end. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Not Quite Millennial Kingdom

This was the scene today at the back of my car as my increasingly deaf and situationally-unaware dog Tequila was probably unaware her nemesis cat Rocki (who adores her but whom Tequila feels perpetually threatened by for ownership of my heart) was laying behind her in the shade under my car's trunk. Although not as remarkable as the predator-prey relationship described in Isaiah 11:6, this is nonetheless an eye-catching scene knowing these two animals the way I do.

Picture of the Day - Pile of Pussycats

This was the scene on my mother's front deck yesterday. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Muh Girls

My cat Rocki adores my dog Tequila who does not reciprocate the affection . Rather, my dog is perpetually jealous of the cat despite getting more of my time by virtue of the cat being a homebody while the dog goes with me everywhere I can take her. The two of them have developed a rather entertaining-to-watch relationship as the cat likes to provoke the dog while the dog likes to chase the cat, something the cat encourages as the cat can easily elude the dog. The cat would prefer to snuggle with the dog who usually will have none of it. However, tonight a rare exception occurred which I captured here unposed. Within a minute of this image being captured the dog repositioned herself facing away from the cat and no longer up against her.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My Favorite Video I Can't Explain

The woman below does not actually appear in this video so don't be afraid to watch it... or contrariwise there is no point in watching it, depending upon your perspective.

The Existentialist Angst Of Henri

Last night at my church home group our hostess showed some of us this video whom one of her friends had recently shared with her in like manner. This is wonderful stuff and so captures the feline attitudinal essence.

Aloha Ke Akua

My dear friend and sister by another mother, Erin, sent me this tonight just a short time ago and I'm still internalizing it and mentally-emotionally downloading it. Needless to say I am blown away by it's beautiful musicality, weighty lyrics, clever wordsmithy, and striking visual imagery. I am honored to share this with you in this space. Below the music player are the lyrics.

Note: I noticed while watching this that it has many stylistic and thematic similarities to the video for "That Place In Your Heart" which I shared on this blog last year and to which I have hyperlinked the title of it here. As it turns out some of the footage is identical so it follows that the same people did the footage for both videos and probably produced them both as well. 

Visual production by The Mates Group for Estrellas Del Bicentario.
Shot in Mexico with Phantom & Red One Cameras.

Aloa Ke Akua

Lend your ears, lend your hands,
Lend your movement, anything you can.
Come to teach, come to be taught.
Come in the likeness in the image of God.
Cause, you can be like that.
With all that humbleness, and all that respect.
All of the power invested in me,
be it hard to love my enemies.
All of the black bags over the heads of the dead and dying.
The more I understand about the human race,
the less I comprehend about our purpose and place
and maybe if there was a clearer line
the curiosity would satisfy.
Time based prophecies that kept me from living,
in the moment I am struggling
to trust the divinity of all the guides
and what the hell they have planned for us.
I cry for the creatures who get left behind
but everything will change in a blink of an eye
and if you wish to survive,
you will find the guide inside.
I go back and forth every single day,
the clarity that comes to me in a choppy way,
as the feelings and the places
and the seasons change,
the galaxies remain.
Energy fields cone the body in space.
The angels that are coming from a spiritual waste.
The hate that gets me distant from my spiritual pace.
Ten fold the manna when the planets are in place, in polar alignment.
We're on assignment.
Bodies on consignment.
Return them to the circus.
And what is the purpose?
What is the purpose and would you believe it?
Would you believe it
if you knew what you were for
and how you became so informed?
Bodies of info performing such miracles.
I am a miracle made up of particles
and in this existence,
I'll stay persistent,
and I'll make a difference
and I will have lived it.
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.
Each day that I wake,
I will praise, I will praise.
Each day that I wake,
I give thanks, I give thanks.
Each day that I wake,
I will praise, I will praise.
Each day that I wake,
I give thanks, I give thanks.
And the day that I don't wake up
and transcend the holy make-up,
I am capable, I am powerful.
And the day that I don't wake up
and transcend the holy makeup,
I am on my way to a different place....
I'm not a leader, just a creature,
seeking the features of a teacher.
Whether you follow or whether you lead
All mysterious ways of nature and I'm into it.
Changing management.
And there are various ways to conquer this monotonous metropolis,
my stubbornness is bottomless,
my fearlessness is talking shit
and I'm wide awake and I'm taking names.
I am not a leader, just a creature.
Seeking the features of a teacher.
Whether you follow or whether you lead
All mysterious ways of nature and I'm into it.
I'm into it.
Changing management.
And there are various ways to conquer this monotonous metropolis,
my stubbornness is bottomless,
my fearlessness is talking shit
and I am wide awake.
And I'm taking names.
And there are various ways to conquer this monotonous metropolis,
my stubbornness is bottomless,
my fearlessness is talking shit,
and I'm wide awake and I'm taking names.
Do you speak to me like you speak to God?
All of the love and understanding between the father and the son?
Do you believe in the perfectness of where you are?
These are my people, these are my children,
this is the land that I would fight for.
My solidarity is telling me to patiently
be moving the musical medicine around the planet in a hurry,
Cuz there's no time to waste.
Got to wake up the people time to stand up and say,
we know what we are for
and how we became so informed.
Bodies of info, performing such miracles.
I am a miracle, made up of particles
and in this existence,
I'll stay persistent
and I'll make a difference
and I will have lived it. ........
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.
Each day that I wake,
I will praise, I will praise.
Each day that I wake,
I give thanks, I give thanks.
Each day that I wake,
I will praise, I will praise.
Each day that I wake,
I give thanks, I give thanks.
And the day that I don't wake up
and transcend the holy make-up,
I am capable, Hm that's right,
I am powerful.
And the day that I don't wake up and transcend the holy make-up,
I am on my way to a different place!
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.
Aloha, Aloha Ke Akua, Ke Akua,
Aloha, Aloha, Kuleana, Kuleana.

Source: http://vimeo.com/55191854

Picture of the Day - My Maine Coon Monster

Rocki is her name and being sweet, cute, funny, fuzzy, mouthy, and playful is her game. Here she is laying on her new ball-in-circular-rail-with-catnip-bearing-cardboard-center-plaything my childhood buddy/neighbor/landlord/fellow cat-owner Mark bought for her while I'm gone doing these shows. How thoughtful of him. Fortunately, mom comes and visits her every day I'm gone on work trips. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Kitten Courage

This little stray male kitten has adopted my mother. He fears nothing thinking nothing of stalking my dog Tequila (right) as he has done before out in mom's yard or attempting to make Tequila feel uncomfortable as she eats the cat's food as seen here. Note: Tequila's hair on her back is raised. Another note: Tequila gets "put out" and unnerved by cats that are not afraid of her. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Meet "Munch"

My friend Janet owns a monstrous cat named "Munch". Munch is monstrously HUGE, heavy, fuzzy, friendly, funny and zany.  This image has not been altered in any way and he actually is that large.  He is even larger than my dog Tequila seen here in the background looking rather jealously at the attention given to Munch earlier this afternoon. He enjoys being held by his "momma" in the manner shown above and oft elects to sleep on her chest at night which as one might imagine is unnerving. Munch also possesses a fetish for plastic which is manifested in his penchant for nesting in it at every opportunity.  Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Fuzzy Courage

This little kitten menaced my dog Tequila as she melodramatically protected her morsel. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Size Envy

Yes, this photograph accurately shows my friend's cat Munch is larger than my dog Tequila and she feels insecure about it. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Crazy Willy

One of my beloved feline friends is Willy The Cat otherwise christened by me "Crazy Willy" and the "Flying Mad Dutchman". I found little Willy on a hot Summer day in 1998 while eating lunch on the front porch of my mother's home where I was living at the time. I kept hearing this pitiful crying of a kitten somewhere nearby. I stopped eating and started searching for it by ear and traced it to a landscaping juniper bush in the next-door neighbor's yard. The neighbor's sprinkler was on and getting the juniper plant wet as well as me as I worked to locate the crying kitten. I struggled to get a glance at it as the source of the crying evaded me but I finally got a gander at this tiny vulnerable pitiful-looking little orange kitten inside the prickly hedge with matted wet hair plastered with juniper needles. I grabbed neo-Willy who initially was terrified that I was about to eat him but I immediately caressed him and spoke comfortingly to him and he responded with an immediate and obvious 180 degree emotional turn from terror to excitement that he had a new friend and savior in me as he clearly knew he was in trouble.

Mom and I nursed him back to health and he soon demonstrated to us how he got in trouble in the first place getting separated from his mom and litter mates too soon in life. Willy, as it turned out was an impulsive, spastic ADHD Type-A personality dare devil kitty with no self control. No doubt his brash and adventurous streak led him at even that young an age to head out from the nest after his mom had left her babies for a short time and he got lost and I fortunately I found him.

Since Willy entered our lives he has never ceased to entertain us and bring us the utmost joy. Willy was one of my best friends at a time in my life when I had few human friends during latter par of my dark years of self-imposed social isolation. Most of the cats in my life from that period are now buried and gone with only Buster (born in late July 1995 still living in mom's house) along with Willy's adopted brother Puffy (born in 1999 in mom's house). Buster's brother Rudy lives down mom's street but visits her every day for love and some wet cat food.

Anywho, below are three images of Willy I captured today while working at mom's house.

There's a cat hidden somewhere in this picture.

Willy's logic: if I can't see them they can't see me.

Liquid orange cat cascading out of the bottom of this curtain.

Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Rocki The Cat

Rocki The Cat has been my dear feline friend since 2008 or thereabouts. I have been blessed with many wonderful cats over the course of my life but Rocki stands out as one of the best if not the best cat I have ever had the privilege of owning. Rocki has dinstinctly Maine Coon, features but is small for that breed in no small measure due to her malnurishment during critical days and weeks in her early development. This breed is one to which I was unfamiliar until I met Rocki. I have since discovered that Maine Coons are very special cats and I've become so spoiled with Rocki that I want only cats of that breed from now on. Rocki entered my life one day when I and my mother and my then-girlfriend were out taking an evening walk up Rocky Canyon Road. We were greeted by Rocki coming out to meet us asking for help. She was a tiny sickly kitten who was emaciated and dehydrated and probably the only survivor of her litter. We found her in a wildland area a good distance from any human habitation so her mother was probably feral. We went back the next day and searched the area for any of her litter-mates who might have been in the area but found none. My then-girlfriend nursed Rocki back to health during the critical days and weeks that followed. Since that time we have jointly owned her although Rocki has lived with me. At some point in the future Rocki will go live with my ex-girlfriend when she gets her own apartment. In the meantime I continue to be blessed with enjoying the pleasure of having Rocki in my life. The following sequence of ten photos were taken this evening and are in the order they were taken:

Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all right reserved).

Bones

Box of Bones

I first met Bones on Carmel Valley Road in Monterey County. It was the Summer of 2001. Mom and I were driving south on the more barren part of the road descending down into the Arroyo Seco drainage. As we drove along an isolated stretch of the road crowded on both sides with thick, brown grasses we barely avoided running over two small, scrawny kittens who were loitering right on the edge of the pavement. We immediately commented to each other something along the lines of "did you see that?" and braked immediately and backed up a bit and got out to go try to get the two little pitiful creatures. We had little hope they wouldn't immediately bolt into the brush but we had nothing to lose and it seemed they had everything to lose.

The cutest thing then happened: as we got out of the car the somewhat larger kitten who was colored gray with a tinge of blue and was a bit healthier-looking but still in pitiful shape got up from a sitting position and started excitedly trotting towards us appearing surprised we had bothered stopping as others had clearly not done.
Immediately the other kitten, totally black, but in much worse shape and significantly smaller clingingly followed her. We were able to quickly scoop up both kittens without resistance and put them on the passenger-side front floor of mom's Ford Explorer. 

Our immediate intent was to take them home and care for them. Mom was driving and I was riding shotgun so it was up to me to look after the kittens. They both had grievously severe upper respiratory infections which caused them to have disgusting deposits of variously wet and scabby mucous deposits all over their faces but especially around their eyes and noses. They also were horribly dehydrated not to mention emaciated beyond relief from starvation and had lots of stickers stuck in their fur. It was heartbreaking to see how pitiful they were and to think they had been abandoned out there as there was no other explanation for their being there. At first, I had no desire to place water on the floor as it might slosh and make a mess. However, it was clear that both kittens, but particularly the black one was in serious trouble. Indeed, I was afraid it might die before we got home. Therefore, I placed a bit of water on the floor in some sort of receptacle and they drank of it with desperation and gratitude.

We got them home alive and as soon as possible got them to El Camino Veterinary Hospital in Atascadero, CA.
There they were cared for and rehabilitated and tested for FIV and FLV and found to be clean of those two diseases but they were suffering from serious upper respiratory infections and, unfortunately, had feline herpes for which there is no cure. For the remainder of their lives we could treat symptoms but not cure them entirely.
We found out the larger Russian Blue-looking one was a female although she really wasn't large but noticeably undersized from malnourishment and her smaller sibling was even more malnourished and was a male.

After they both came home some days thereafter they began to be accepted by our other cats although it was a process that took time. We named the female Carmel for Carmel Valley Road where we found them and we named him Bones as he was nothing but skin and bones when we found him and would remain skinny all his remaining life. We fell hopelessly in love them with them early on, probably on the way home with them from Carmel Valley Road. They were just so innocent in such a malevolent world, like feline Hansels and Gretels. They seemed to have no concept of danger or evil but were so trusting which bothered us even while it charmed us.
They were also so stoical as they never seemed to realize they were in bad shape or make any sort of feline equivalent of complaining about their situation.

The two of them were inseparable but so different. Carmel was larger and more aggressive (there is probably a connection there) and acted the part of the bossy, but protective older sister. Bones was always more sickly with near-constant upper respiratory infections and acted much more the part of the follower who clung to his sister. Consequently, she usually got her share of the cat food before he did and he got what she left behind although they always had enough to eat in our home. Carmel was the bravest little cat I've ever met who liked to aggressively confront things that frightened her, most notably, the vacuum cleaner for which she was mortified but she would frequently stalk it and attack it when I was operating it while cleaning the house. Bones on the other hand was not merely brave, but utterly fearless. Absolutely nothing fazed him, not other cats, not dogs, not automobiles, and certainly not Carmel's bete noir, the dreaded vacuum cleaner which he would act entirely unimpressed with as it operated right next to him until I had to physically move him out of its way to continue with what I was doing.

Carmel napping:

Both cats were irrepressible and relentless in anything they did. Carmel was a bit more outgoing and cheery with the sweetest disposition of any cat I've ever met. Bones was a bit more subdued and restrained as he often didn't feel so great, but was not less sweet-spirited. He had a bit of an edge to him in a Addams Family/Munsters sort of way. He was black and looked emaciated even when healthy due to his underdevelopment and often had upper respiratory problems which made him look somewhat like something resurrected from Steven King's Pet Cemetery and sound like a feline version of Darth Vader due to his heavy breathing although that breathing was nearly always interspersed with sneezing as well.

Bones in the kitchen:

Bones in a bowl.

He also had seemingly over-sized, bulbous, luminous yellow eyes which seemed to protrude from his head more than most cats which looked funny to me. He didn't like to fight and was in little position to successfully do that but he was oft wont to creep another cat out who was eating the wet cat food he so loved by sitting down next to it as it ate and just loom over it and stare at it with his scary eyes, unblinking and unafraid which made most cats quite uncomfortable and decide to leave. Carmel on the other hand was a bit larger but nonetheless undersized and she had a beautiful short, gray hair with a tinge of bluishness and was not nearly so sickly as Bones.

Bones had this cute little thing he used to do where he'd curl up in one of the sinks in the our big bathroom and sleep. Bones also liked to have me tug on his tail and pull up his rear end a couple of inches off the ground and turn him around with his front paws as the axis of motion which seemed to get him more jazzed and playful than anything else I could do.The stories about Bones go on and on and are more than I can reasonably cover here with some already faded from memory but many still with me. 

Carmel was hit by a car in 2003 right in front of the house while we were over at my place watching a Lakers game. She lingered for over a month needing to be rehydrated and fed as she refused to swallow anything for some inexplicable reason and so was finally put down the month following her injury which also took one of her eyes. Bones soldiered on without his sister and continued to work his way into our hearts to the point of becoming our child. Bones would always sleep atop mom at night, heavy breathing and stinky breath and sometimes bubbly mucous sniffles notwithstanding.

Throughout Bones' life he had ongoing upper respiratory problems which would need periodic treatments of antibiotic to knock it back down. Later in life we became aware that he had a problem with the autoimmune disease stomatitus which caused inflammations of his gums and throat. Last month his stomatitus got out of control again and consequently his upper respiratory infection took advantage of his weakened immune system and he got very sick. We decided to have the vet remove his teeth as a last resort, something that had worked wonders for another cat we own. The vet advised that Bones was not well enough to have the procedure done until he was stabilized.

Therefore, on May 29, 2008, before leaving town we left Bones in the care of El Camino Veterinary Hospital so that when he got well enough while we were out of town the procedure would be accomplished. The next day we all went out on a rockhounding excursion into Lake and Napa Counties to the area around the Homestake Gold Mine. On the way back to her motel room later in the day, mom called the vet's office and asked about Bones.
Cryptically, the gal in the front office ominously told her to hold while the vet was summoned. When Dr. Miller picked up the phone she explained to mom that quite unexpectedly Bones had tragically died. Mom was stunned and stung as was I when I heard the news. Our little cute, fuzzy, black, sickly, skinny, irrepressible Bones was gone forever. We buried Bones next to his sister in mom's front yard. We planted a red plum tree over them whose leaves the deer keep eating.

Life goes on now but the home doesn't feel the same.
Bones left a vacuum that may never be filled.
Several other cats belonging to us have died in recent years, about eight in all.
That leaves only Willy and Buster and Smokey and Tommy now with Puffy and Rudy having drifted away.

Mom put it this way and I have to agree, "Bones was a little cat who was very big."