Cosmo's "meow day"

I think it's safe to say that you frequently have no idea when a cat was actually born since most of the time they come from shelters or some other agency. Diana therefore has assigned her cats, and now Cosmo, a "meow day" as their birthdays, an approximate time around which they may have been born. Today is Cosmo's day.

Stephanie and I picked up Cosmo at a Wal-Mart almost 12 years ago. Her mom called and said one of the shelters had cats they were showing there, ready for adoption. So we showed up, I buried my face in her orange fur as an allergy test, and we took her home. And she talked the entire time (Cosmo, not Steph). She's been a talker since the start.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of her at that young age, as this was pre-digital and I didn't even have my SLR at the time. I think Steph may have one or two of her on the futon we had in our first apartment, but I'm not sure. What I do remember is that she was one nutty kitten.

When we had her fixed or de-clawed, I don't remember which, I remember the doctor overdid it on the anesthesia or something, because she drooled and washed herself until she was wet. Poor thing just hid under the bed the entire time. I felt pretty bad about that.

In our bigger apartment, she loved to run up and down the hallway, belting out a huge meow when she got to the living room in the middle of the night after literally bouncing off the wall. Our place was on a corner of the building and the entire complex, with a road wrapping around the corner, so she liked trying to "get" the car lights as they went by.

Flying was a regular thing for her the first few years. Her favorite thing was for you to put your arm out standing, making the "claw hand," and she'd jump the five feet into the air, grab on and read-dig your arm. Pretty funny stuff.

We really messed with her world when Steph's mom brought over Luna, and we (somewhat reluctantly at first) decided to keep her. Even though she was bitchy to her, I know Cosmo loved Luna and looked out for her. She's still the only animal that Cosmo would allow to touch her.

I remember shortly after moving into the house, the week I had between jobs that year, I was putting some stuff down in the crawl space. Unknown to me at the time, Cosmo snuck down there. She climbed up on a heat vent that ran next to a wood beam, and got stuck because she couldn't turn around. I thought she had escaped, until I heard a faint meow under the floor. She was there for about eight hours, and I thought I lost her.

During the early parts of our separation, when I was most distraught, Cosmo very obviously could sense what was going on. She wouldn't leave my side and seemed to realize a certain peace when she'd plop down next to me. Between the break ups, Luna's passing, lost jobs and other sad times, she still just knows. Weird how an animal can sense that.

When Cath and I were dating, I think Cosmo secretly loved fucking with her canine namesake. It was almost as if she tried to make the point that she was smarter than the dog. But every once in awhile they would chase each other, and that was good fun.

She's not very fond of the other cats, but she does tolerate them most of the time. The boys just don't understand when she doesn't want to be fucked with. She still asserts herself as the leader of the pride though by way of indifference to them. Hopefully the boys will learn to leave her alone as she gets older.

So after 12 years, wow, that's a long time! She seems to be in pretty good health still, and when she has the right toy she gets pretty nutty. She's had a tough time keeping up with that fur in winter, but I try to help her out. I hope she still has many years to go. She has a somewhat evil streak to her, so I can only imagine she'll march on. I love that cat.