Felix was always part of my young life. I believe were we born in the same year. His mother had shouldered aside a screen in our basement to find a safe place to have her kittens. My parents ever the animal lovers left food and water for her and gradually coaxed her into allowing them to touch her. She was feral and the process was long. The window had been shut to keep her inside while she nursed her brood. I have no memory of this but must go on what I was told later. I think they eventually named her Pinkie and my mother came to love her.
Her brood of kittens grew up to weaning stage and now needed homes. We could not keep a momma cat and six kittens.
Four people agreed to take a kitten and a fifth was foist upon my grandmother who was not in the market for owning a pet. The sixth Felix with no home became ours. Not long after the kittens had found new homes Pinkie escaped into the street and as my mother watched was killed by a taxi who did not stop. I remember my mother come into the house crying holding Pinkie's bleeding body.
Not long after a dog was adopted who was named Lady and was supposed to be for my eldest brother but she decided otherwise. That is a story for a future blog. Felix and Lady were a bonded pair as disparate as that may seem.
When I turned 11 or there abouts my grandmother passed away and we moved into her house it being larger than the one we occupied. In inheriting her house we inherited the cat we had foist upon her some years before. She had named it Jeannie and she had loved that cat and spoiled it outrageously. In my visits to her house I can remember her standing on her back step calling to her cat, "here kittle, kittle".
And so we brought our brood of pets to this new house that Jeannie saw as her own and had to mediate battles between them. Jeannie understandably upset my grandmother was gone now had to deal with two new cats and a dog. Brotherly and sisterly love never manifested between Jeannie and Felix. As far as Felix was concerned Skeek and Lady were family but she was a b*tch.
And many years passed with Felix getting into fights and developing life threatening infections despite being neutered. Having dental infections that cost him most of his teeth. He loved his companion Lady and every chance he got he washed her face.
He loved my dad and when my dad and the dog would go for a walk Felix always tagged along. Even if Lady was not along Felix would walk the neighborhood with my dad.
At the age of 21 Felix developed kidney failure. It was a sudden onset and none of us were prepared for this. The vet told us the most humane thing was to let him go and after many tears and a tough decision he was at peace. He was buried under an ancient oak in the yard.
