My beloved Rahu: Godspeed, crazy cat!

July 11, 2009  5:42 pm

For those of you who read my lament of disconnection from the internet, I’m ON! Thank you Comcast.

As I write this, my beloved fur faced friend, Rahu: crazy cat, ferile feline, is likely dying under the porch out back. My heart is breaking, but I’m grateful to have had the chance to spend some years – 13 or 14 – with this wild, impetuous creature of habit, Rahu.

I adopted her and her sis, Ketu (named for the hidden stars of the Hindu sky – you never saw them) and, for little Hindu demons, which they were, from the rough streets of Central Square, Cambridge, MA. Ketu was a little more beautiful, lived hard, got nailed early and often, and died young – we think a raccoon got her back in ’92.

Rahu has traveled far and wide; Hawaii, Scituate, Cohasset, Nantucket, and finally DC. But she loved Nantucket most: she had a path worn circling the house. That’s how she would spend her days, circling the house, round and round. And round and round.

Maybe she’ll rally but I don’t think so. Talking it over with Craig, he said, “animals have their own way of passing, and they don’t choose to do the die-in-your-arms drama that people do.” I think that’s right for Rahu, anyway.  So, I’m not doing much this weekend but honoring this little being that’s been such a sweet little slice of wildness in my life for the last decade and a half. And letting her do it not in my arms, but in the dusty nest she’s made under the porch, like a self-respecting animal.

If this is your time, little one, Godspeed.