DAY10 - A Story About a Past Relationship

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NOTICE! 

The Invasion of the Crumb Snatchers

has now been illustrated. 

Take a look!

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30 Day Challenge

~NIGEL~

It's impossible to recount every awesome thing Nigel and I did together, or to explain just why he's such a special cat. He was my buddy. I loved him so much, and he loved me, too. I miss my little kitty friend.

Nigel was my favorite Christmas present, aside from the harp. He was my present the Christmas before I turned 12, and my parents selected him from a little farm kitty family. All the kittens were adorable, but Nigel went right up to my papa and started purring--much like the revving of a motorcycle. Perfect!

He always purred a lot. He was so content to just be with me that he would often sit gazing at me while I went about my business, and he'd purr and purr and purr. 

 Nigel was patient. He had to be, being MY kitty. I played with him all day...sometimes playing games that were not kitty-games, like dress up (but it's so irresistible)! And the best part was that Nigel still worshiped me. He followed me around the house and sat with me wherever I was. I loved his company. And he really loved me--some cats truly are independent, but Nigel was more like a dog in his submission to me as his master. He slept on my bed and purred me to sleep. He was always so affectionate. 

 Nigel's meows were really weird. In fact, he was really weird. But of course, that's why he was perfect for me (or did you not know that I'm weird? Surprise!). When he meowed, it sounded like a garbled mess of German and ...something like a Scottish accent. His most commonly repeated meows were "McGah" and "Gank-G-Nyow!" He liked to talk to me while I sat at my desk and drew picture after picture. And he'd follow me if I got up, especially if I was heading to the bathroom. He loved running water, and he knew I'd turn on the sink for him. But it could be annoying; he'd come all the way to the door and then stand there looking up at me waiting for me to grant permission, like a dog, and when I had to go to the bathroom really badly, he'd stand there unsure for way too long. One of my favorite memories of Nigel is watching him leap onto the edge of a basin sink. As he got older, he developed an udder-esque sack of fat on his belly. It was so hilariously gross. He was HUGE, but his face always stayed the same babyish, kitten face! So he'd leap up onto that lip of the sink and teeter on the point of his four paws, looking a little frantic while he waited for balance. Sometimes I gave him a sneaky shove into the sink. :D 

This drawing by Maddie documents a crazy story. :) One time I woke up to Nigel clamping his teeth into my buttocks at 4am. I jerked and turned around to look at him, and he sat there staring at me with wide eyes, completely shocked, as if saying "Oh, you...uh, you woke up...I didn't expect you to..." Then he shifted his paws and adjusted his face so that he seemed to be trying the innocent look, like he had no idea why I was still awake. I laughed and either rolled out of bed or went back to sleep (I often did get up at 4am).

 Nigel was not very um...catlike in his grooming, shall we say. I think part of it could be that he got used to having baths as a kitten (which he loved) to help cure him of some ringworm. Yeah, that's disgusting. Like I said, he was a farm kitty! He stayed in my bedroom for the first few weeks until he was better, and I didn't mind at all. But I think the other part of his dirtiness was plain old laziness. Or stupidity, I don't know. He was such a silly cat! This picture (above) is Elroy giving him a bath. Elroy tolerated Nigel and sometimes played all buddy-buddy with him, but his friendship seemed to come with conditions: Elroy would get to bathe Nigel once in a while, and Elroy would get to keep his favorite snoozing spots. (When it came to food, though, there was no negotiating; Nigel was such a hog, he'd budge in and knock Elroy over to snarf down as much as he could before Elroy finally got annoyed enough to shove him away).

I had Nigel till I was almost 17, I think. Over the years I'd become a little allergic to cats (especially my un-bathing little Nigel), and I had to let him live with my sister Rae. I was okay with the arrangement, but I missed him a lot. I knew that as cute and crazy as he was, he wouldn't have as cool a relationship with Rae as he had with me. The day came finally that Nigel ran away; he was always obsessed with the outdoors (understandably but a little bit psychotically), and when friends came to visit Rae, they left the door open long enough that Nigel made his escape. I'm not sure if he was too daft to find his way back or found more fun out in the wild or just died really soon after...but I'm excited to have him back when I go to Heaven. :) No allergies there!