Sunday, June 15, 2008

Eulogy for Pablo


He may have been the coolest cat that ever walked the planet, even people who hated cats seemed to take a shine to him, there was just something about his demeanor that people loved, we got him when he was about 10 weeks old from some theatre freak who couldn't keep him and i consider it one of the luckiest days of my life, at first people thought he was weird but actually i think he just wanted a friend, a mom and he found one of those in the girl who immediately took to him because he was a bit weird, he was named after a certain eccentric artist and became a fixture in the neighborhood...
His early days were spent in Clarion roaming the great outdoors and getting into all kinds of things, he had at least six confirmed kills that he would bring into the house or leave on the back porch, always bringing them to show his mom, always so proud and happy that he caught something, we'd have to hide it whatever he killed due to the fact that he'd just keep bringing it back and sitting next to it while the last bits of life twitched out of it, he liked to watch t.v. at the neighbors, it was a small town and people usually left there doors wide open and Pablo would amble across the backyard and up the steps to their apt. and pass out on the couch, they'd come home and he'd wake up and watch t.v. with them and when it was time to go to bed his mom would call and ask if he was there and the guys would tell him that he had to go home and she'd stand on the back step and yell his name and he'd come flying down the steps run across the yard into the house up the the stairs and jump into bed...
During the Wilderness years when El Kono was running the streets and his mom spent alot of time alone he was her best friend, he just liked to hang out wherever she was, he liked people in general, i once spent three hours walking the streets of Ocean City after working a double shift at the fry joint because he had gotten lost, his mom was upstairs crying afraid that he was gone and i wandered around asking people if they'd seen him, crawling under porches, looking behind dumpsters and garbage cans, apparently all the traffic scared him and he had hidden himself under our apt's front porch and when i was just about to give up and was standing across the street saying his name i heard a big cheer go up as he went flying up the steps, one of the roommates opened the door and we once again ran straight to the bedroom where he jumped into his mama's arms and began purring, she told him not to do it again and he didn't... that was the summer of discontent in O.C. and it was hot and horrible and i remember laying in bed by the fan, Pablo next to me, me drinking water and pouring some in the cap and him lapping it up...
He liked to fetch, you could throw jingle balls and he would bring them back and sit until you did it again, he would get happy feet every time we came home, standing at the door doing a little dance and meowing cuz he was happy to see us, if mom spent to many days away he'd be a little put off and it might take 10 or 15 minutes before he warmed up to her, he was highly intelligent and was the most well behaved cat i've ever had, he didn't scratch anything he wasn't supposed to, was gentle, basically just cool...
Three weeks ago i took him to the vet and he was skinny, almost to skinny to live, he went on steroids and he seemed to be doing better but he was frail and seemed to be forgetting where things were and his mom and i went back and forth on what to do about him but as usual he didn't cause us any problems, on friday morning i couldn't find him and as i searched the house i had a bad feeling, the vet had said he was just old and didn't seem to have any physical problems and most likely wasn't in pain, so we had let him go, i found him in the basement, he had slipped into a closet and he was laying there still alive but i could tell he wasn't doing good, i knew what he was doing, so i petted him for a bit and told him it was cool, that if he wanted to go to sleep it was alright, that he was the best cat we could've asked for and that his mom and dad loved him to no end, i made him comfortable and left the closet door like it was and went upstairs and left for work, on arriving home his mom asked if i knew where he was and i said i'm pretty sure i did and i went to the basement and found him, same spot, gone, and even when you know it's coming it doesn't make it any easier, i picked him up and put him in a box, hopefully he joined his sister in kitty Valhalla...
Pablo was born in July 1994 and passed away of natural causes on June 13, 2008, he spent time in Clarion, Altoona, Ocean City, Md and Pittsburgh, he was a brown and black tabby and the coolest cat you could ever ask for,he liked the band Grandaddy and his favorite song was Aim for the Sky, he is survived by his little sister Claudia, his little brother Louie, the imaginary boy, and a heartbroken mom and dad.
Recommended listening -- Aim for the Sky by Grandaddy, Broken Heart by Spiritualized

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry for your loss. the grief is just as real when it's a critter-member of the family.

interesting - bete de jour just wrote about losing a cat named Pablo. you might find his tribute of interest: http://betedejour.blogspot.com/2008/06/of-cats-and-men.html

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear that man, when Pablo gets there he'll probably run into my old cat Sherman - toughest dude on the block, got ran over chasing a dog.

Anonymous said...

Shit. Sorry to hear it. He had a good run. My condolences.

La BĂȘte said...

Hey, Kono. My condolences to you too. Small world, huh? Take care.

Stan

Gulfboot Johnson said...

That was the cat, that was.

Anonymous said...

I never saw Pablo down, and we always had good times. I'll remember him that way forever. My condolences man...

twin said...

Damn...