BlackJack, commonly referred to as Jack, and affectionately known as His Royal Fuzzlewumpagus, passed away on today’s date 20 years ago.
He was a once in a lifetime cat. One with whom I bonded so that I depended on him as much as he did on me.
There was never any question about him. Wherever I was, that was where he belonged. He did not hesitate, did not waver, did not concern himself with anything beyond that simple certainty.
He came into my life as an injured, and frightened 2 month old kitten hiding in the back of a cage at the Humane Society. Yet he came to me immediately, wrapping himself around my neck, burying his head under my chin, and settling in as though I had always been his.
Having no idea what to name him, I glanced towards the wrapper of chewing gum a friend had given me. Black Jack. Thus the kitten was named.
As a kitten, he had a purple, full sized beach ball which though it dwarfed him, he would chase playfully. Then he discovered the joy of unrolling the toilet paper. He would chase me about the house and bat my head with his paws.
There are moments that stand apart. The fire which he survived. The night he awakened and thus warned me of a home invasion in time for me to fight it off. Things that, even now, I do not revisit lightly. They are part of him, but they are not all of him.
What I remember most is the constancy. The quiet presence. The understanding that I was not alone, no matter what else was happening.
Twenty years is a long time. Long enough that most things lose their sharpness. That has not entirely happened here. There is still a clarity to him, a sense of something that was steady, reliable, perhaps intuitive.
Some losses become part of the landscape of life. They grow familiar, but never small. The memory of the day he passed is fresh as if it happened today. And still as painful.
For now, this is what I have.
It has been twenty years, yet he is with me still.
I remember him with the love and honor due the most faithful of companions.
His spirit will live on through The Aethereal Cat. I hope I can do his memory justice.
