Kimberly [a.k.a. Kimmy Kitty]

Kimmy likes attention. She will sing and dance to get attention. Standing on her hind legs, she will pirouette while letting out a prolonged maoooooooooooow. She is also very affectionate and will insistently bump her head against my hand until I pet her or otherwise give her the affection she demands.

[5/July/2006]
Ah, Kimmy. My little old lady. It's been so long since I've updated her page on my web site. She's been a great cat for many years, and many tales have been forgotten because I didn't write them down.

She's getting old. She's over 17 years old now and her health is failing. For the last couple of years I've had to get her medication for hyperthyroidism. It makes a big difference; she's hanging in there pretty well. Her hind legs are weak and her rear end wobbles a bit when she walks. Of course, she doesn't jump up on things so much any more, but she still gets around pretty well. My bed is low to the ground and she can step on the pile of clothes that always seems to be there at the foot of my bed and use it as a ramp to get up on my bed. When she leaves, she usually just throws herself off to flop onto the carpeting. She doesn't land too gracefully, but she handles it about as gracefully as she can.

I recently brought home Benji-cat and her reaction to him was classic. Kimmy was wobbling into the kitchen with her eyes fixed firmly on the food dish. I had just set Ben down to show him where the food and water dishes were to get him acquainted with his new home. Kimmy had almost walked by him without noticing him until the last second. Her expression told he thoughts perfectly. She went, "Oh! A new cat." She leaned forward and sniffed him briefly, then went, "Ok. Seen it before. So, there's another cat here." Then she turned her attention back to the food and never gave him a second glance. She was totally unphased by it.

It's perhaps appropriate to point out here that Kimmy is the last cat that has known every cat I've ever had. The original four, Blackjack, Vanessa, Simon, and Sugarfoot, were all here when she arrived as a young kitten (along with her brother, Timothy.) And she's seen many a cat come along since getting here, from Joey through Lucy, and now little Ben. She's seen them all and it's become old hat to her. And, of course, there's the fact that she's an old lady — she just doesn't get that worked up over much any more.

[12 Sept. 2007]Kimmy began suffering from muscle attrophy of her hind legs quite a few years ago. For the last five or six years she'd been taking medication for a hyperthyroid condition. That problem has brought her near death several times, but adjusting the dose of her medication has always pulled her back from the brink.

This past weekend Kimmy's blood was tested and we learned that she's got failing kidneys on top of everything else. She's not properly digesting her food and her apetite has started to decline. She's almost 19 years old and has been with me since she was a kitten.

It was a very hard decision to make, but just after 5:00 pm on September 12, Kimberly went to sleep never to awaken again. As always, I was with my beloved little cat until the end.

Her parting is especially significant in two ways: she's the first cat I've lost since moving from Connecticut to Washington. More significantly, she is the last cat to have known every cat I've ever had. She wasn't my first cat, but the ones who came before her were still alive when she joined the family. She's seen several cats come in as kittens and pass away before her. She's had a pretty long life and I'm sad that she's gone.

Like so many others, I will always miss her. Her urn will now join the others on the memorial shelf.