Remembering Beasey

Beasey here.

Just taking a little time to let everyone know I’m not scared...I’m okay! You should see this beautiful little sparkling waterfall I’m sitting next to. It’s like it’s made out of pieces of sunlight or something. I can lean in and lap up the drops anytime I want and they taste great. Sometimes I drink right from the golden pond too. There’s all these pretty flowers growing everywhere I don’t know any of the names but I can ask my Auntie Dana, she’ll know. She’s here too. When I started to go over the Rainbow Bridge at first I was scared but then I could see her on the other side waving and calling to me!

Joey’s here too and I finally got to meet Grampy! In fact, there turned out to be so many people who wanted to meet me they’re gonna have a party. Not everyone knows it yet but I’m planning to lead them in a huge cha-cha extravaganza.

My mama was very sad. I could hear her crying when I left. I remember how much she cried when Auntie Dana left. See, Mama and Auntie Dana took me in one day a long time ago. I was real hungry and somehow that office door seemed like the perfect place to ask for a little food. Huh, even then Beasey knew what side his toast was buttered on. They gave me some tuna-fish so I came back every day and hollered at the door! They liked me so much they started letting me live there. Then one day I was outside and I saw Auntie Dana flying by in the clouds. I was so excited I climbed up to the roof to wave at her! The next day Mama cried and cried. Lots of other people came over and cried too. Mama told me: “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.” That’s when I decided to stay on and help her take over the business. She says if it weren’t for me she wouldn’t have been able to do it. Yeah, ol’ Beasey sure put his hours in back then, greeting the customers and keeping Mama company when she had to work late at night. Sometimes we just stared into space in that office, crying over Auntie. Lots of other people helped like Auntie Lily and Uncle Bob. Then Mama decided to take me to meet Joey, her cat at home. He didn’t like me much at first but he got used to me. I tried to tell him I wasn’t going to take over but I don’t think he believed me.

Then one day Mama put me and Joey into cages and drove in the car for a long time. I was mad! I screamed the whole way, thinking she was taking me back to The Big House where I was once before. But then we pulled up to this cottage and she brought us inside and opened our cages. When she wasn’t looking we took turns marking the place until she yelled, “Who tinkled in the house?!?” That first night me and Joey watched out the window into the woods. There were lots of animals looking back at us wondering who we all were.

Then it got cold again and Joey got sick and went over the Rainbow Bridge. Mama helped him, plus someone she kept calling “The Heaven Lady.” For a long time it was just me and Mama. Mama wanted me to be the Only Cat for awhile, without anybody chasing me. She figured I earned it from being out on the streets of Mount Shasta when I was a kid and then Joey being the boss all the time. Once I got in a fight with a bobcat, but I got away! I came home pretty scraped up and all sorts of things started hurting. I stayed under the piano for awhile and thought I might go away too, but Mama kept making me drink gravy with an eyedropper and take pills… yuck! Sometimes I would fall fast asleep but then I would hear her singing to me and massaging me so I knew where to come back. One of my front leggies went bad. She took me in a cage to the vet a bunch of times and boy how I hated that! Finally she brought me home and I felt pretty dizzy for awhile. One day though, Auntie Kenna came over and showed Mama how to massage me just right. My leggie started feeling better and even though I had a little limp I could still do everything I wanted. I climbed over the garden fence one day just to show Mama how strong I was!

So I worked in the new office some days, plus I helped Mama write The Spaghetti Afterlife. She’s working on a new one now called Meteor Falls but she gets stuck a lot, so maybe I’ll be able to help her from here. Auntie Dana says she can show me how.

Around Christmas last year Mama came home one day with a new cat named Sophie who was kind of snobby at first. Mama said it was because she couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t with her Daddy anymore. She chased me a lot and I think she was just trying to play. But I was getting tired and didn’t feel like playing with her much. Mama said she wanted someone else to keep me company when she wasn’t home so I figured it was okay.

Then this spring I felt like… I don’t know, it was time to go or something. I’d been around a real long time. Maybe 15 years or so. I tried sneaking away into the woods a few times but then Mama would whistle for dinner and I’d come back. Then she went to visit Uncle Wayno and came back all happy. I couldn’t spoil everything and leave her right then. She went down to Grandma’s for her birthday and I still couldn’t leave. But a few days later I saw my chance. We were all three sitting on the couch one night watching a funny man on TV. Mama was laughing. I had The Lap, and Sophie was sitting right next to us. That always made Mama happy. She would coo and say, “My babies…all together…” You know, I never did go for the mushy stuff. A quick lick, a love nip, a paw-hold here and there and snoozing together was all I could do but I always knew me and Mama were tight. I just didn’t show it like Sophie or Joey. I figured if I hollered at her a lot she’d know how much I cared. So every time she drove up the driveway and opened her car door I was on that front porch a’hollerin’. At meal times too. When I came in the kitty door, I always said hi, and I made sure the person on the other end of the phone knew I was there! Then there was the time I found her lost pearl earring and put it in the litter box where I knew she’d see it. Anyway, the next morning I woke up and hollered for breakfast as usual. I even flopped down next to the living room rug and ripped out its entrails one more time for good measure before going out to the front porch to hit the ol’ litter box. I could hear Mama taking a shower and going up to her office. I jumped up onto the bench to take a nap in the sun and then it happened. My time came—so fast I barely knew it! Mama cried and tried to wake me up but then I felt this blast of love coming from her, sending me into a tunnel made out of light. Next thing I knew I was on The Rainbow Bridge.

I’m having so much fun now! Nothing feels sore and I have lots and lots of friends. I miss Mama and I know she’ll be sad for awhile but then she’ll feel better. Besides, we’ll meet up again anyway when she comes over the Rainbow Bridge.

Your friend,

Beasey

PS: If you’re feeling flush in the wallet you can always go to The Southern Oregon Humane Society where Mama works sometimes and make a donation in my name. You’ll get to be listed in the next issue of their newsletter and it sure would help all those animals who live there.