by Char Borchers
This is about my cat Selleck.He was an orange tabby and white cat. Going all the way back to 1983, when I was working full time in an Animal Emergency Clinic nights, , and part time for a groomer during the day. The groomer had this cat that her daughter found in a field near her high school. Both she and her daughter were allergic to cats, and they asked me to watch him for a weekend when they went away. Well, I ended up watching him for 19 yrs.!
I named him Selleck because, he had an orange moustache and because I really liked Tom Selleck in Magnum at the time. I figured this was one way to have Tom Selleck in my life.. I even sent him a picture of the cat..sadly he never responded..lol
Selleck was such a good cat from the start. I took him to the Emergency clinic where I worked and we neutered him.. He was an outside cat, I could never break him of that, so he was not declawed. He always stayed close to home, so I did not worry. I got an Afghan Hound from one of the people I worked with, and Selleck and Dillon became best friends. I had Dillon for 12 yrs. I also moved numerous times during Sellecks life. Each move he accepted and always stayed close to me. We even lived on a busy road and he never strayed. When I moved where I am now, which is on 4 acres he was in heaven. I would just have to open my kitchen window,he would jump out and survey his land. He never got into any fights. He did bring home the occasional mouse, or bird which I did not like, but he was a hunter after all. One time he brought a baby chipmunk home, alive, and it was in the hallway. I just got a broom and swept at it until it went out the door relieved. Needless to say I never had a rodent problem where I live. I acquired three more cats in Sellecks lifetime. He always accepted them, would clean them, wrestle with them and sleep by them. He was always healthy until toward the end. He began to show his age when he was 15. He was never overweight, always stayed around 10 lbs. He went down to 7 and was very frail. One he reached 18, his eyes showed his age, his meow was even old. I have worked for the same vet now in another city for most of his years. He did not like the trip to the vet and in the car you could hear him wail like he was being murdered. I would stop at a stop light and get some very interesting inquisitive looks.
He began vomiting periodically, and he would ask to go outside and come in, and a few moments later , like some old person with Atlzheimers ask to go out again. I just let him go. When I had my dog and went out to walk him,Selleck would be there bouncing a few feet behind us in the back field following along. If I went down to the Dairy Mart on the corner,he would follow me to the stop sign at the end of the property, sit and wait for me to come back.. just an amazing cat. I love to garden, and he would always lay in the shade and watch me. When I would sit at the picnic table he would let me brush him, I would toss his hair on the ground and the birds loved his hair for their nests. One summer a mocking bird must have had him pay a visit to some of it's babies because every time Selleck would go outside this bird would swoop down at him. He just pranced along ignoring it, as if to say, you got the wrong guy.
It was a sunny day in June of 2001. Selleck had been wasting away, but still ate and purred and jumped up on my lap. His vomiting got worse, and he would back into the entertainment center and urinate, like he did not know he was inside. His urine was so dilute due to kidney disease that it was like water. He began to walk sideways and fall over. I knew his time was near. I picked him up, and with tears running down my face I asked him if he was ready. He gave me a look I will never forget, a look of permission. He laid his head on my shoulder and just sighed. I called my two sons and my boyfriend to meet me at work, my sister who works with me at the animal hospital was there. We sent him to a better place. I cried and told him he was my best friend, always there for me thru so much I had gone thru in my life with him. This was my gift to him. He looked at me one more time, weakly lifting his head. And then he was gone. I brought him home, and let my other two cats see him and smell him so they knew he was gone. The looked at him, and then at me and I knew they knew. I burried him in my garden, and put a brick there for a headstone, and a garden fairy statue is on top. I planted three Hydrangeas on his grave. Now , every spring Selleck will come back to me, Pink, blue, and white flowers,in a spot where he was happiest. He will always have a special place in my heart.