Thursday, March 28, 2024
cat storiescatsnamirrescue stories

Rescue Story: October 3, 1997, a Homecoming

Namir and Kelly, the first time they came down the steps to the landing, their first step in joining the household.
Namir and Kelly, the first time they came down the steps to the landing, their first step in joining the household.

It’s wonderful and possibly no coincidence that the 20th anniversary of the arrival of two kitties who shared my life is on Tuesday, the day I publish rescue stories. While the story of their coming here is technically not a rescue, aside from the fact that they probably would have gone to a shelter and not been adopted and had some negative consequences as a result, Namir and Kelly were both rescues, individually. The photo above was not from the day they arrived, but from months later when the two had long passed their quarantine and finally decided to come down the stairs, together, to check things out, though Namir still wasn’t sure he wanted to stay with me, and Kelly did whatever he said.

Kelly likely seems like she was best friend to Cookie as the two tortie girls for all their lives together. They were together so much in life on this blog, but Cookie came here in 1992 and Kelly in 1997. Because we lost Namir just about the time I began blogging, you’ve mostly seen Namir with Cookie or by himself, and Kelly with Cookie or Peaches or herself. But until Peaches joined our household and Kelly became her BFF, Kelly and Namir were bonded friends who often snuggled together or, as you see, snuggled in mirror images.

Kelly and Namir sleeping back to back on the couch, position 1.
Kelly and Namir sleeping back to back on the couch, position 1.

Namir and Kelly mirror each others’ sleeping positions on the couch, in 2000.

The anniversary

It’s always a bittersweet day for me, one in the cycle of the comings and goings of felines in my household, but I mark it each year in memory knowing the date is likely not a coincidence, marking a year of transition for me and for my feline household.

On October 3, 1996, I let go of Allegro after just two weeks of knowing he had lymphoma, and just two weeks after letting go of my Kublai, a time that brought a change in me and my art.

On October 3, 1997, a friend drove up to my home bearing Kelly and Namir for me to foster. So much had happened for me and my feline household in the intervening year, and so much change was still to come, but, especially after the losses of Kublai and Allegro, these two unintentional adoptions made my household complete, joining Sally, Stanley, Moses, Fawn, Sophie, Cookie and Nikka.

I had agreed to foster Kelly and Namir for a friend who was going off to graduate school across the country with very little means, and I would foster them for her but would keep them with me. When it was clear my friend, still without the means for stable housing for herself, couldn’t take Kelly and Namir back a couple of years later, they officially became permanent members of my feline family, but that was only a formality. We had come some distance on a journey together and still had some distance to go.

Kelly and Namir sleeping back to back on the couch, position 2.
Kelly and Namir sleeping back to back on the couch, position 2.

By this time Namir was ruler of his little kingdom, his sweet and silly personality making him a favorite with visitors and a good friend of mine. Kelly was still shy of others but friendly with me, and opening up her talkative and busy personality for us to enjoy. But we didn’t start there—in fact, Namir hated my guts for a few months, his loyalty to his person stronger than his curiosity and need to explore his new home. He growled at me when I came in the spare cat room to feed them, and Kelly hid, frightened by both me and Namir.

I began leaving the door open to the room in the spring of 1998, and finally one day, the two quietly came down the steps together to explore. It was just a few steps to trust from there, and as for them integrating into the rest of the family, they’d been conversing through the closed door and then the open door, and I’m sure it was those feline conversations that told them the human was worth getting to know.

I was lucky enough to catch that moment in the photo at the top when I turned to see them and quickly grabbed the old Pentax K1000. They are about four years old in that photo. What a lucky day for me.

It seems like yesterday.

The new fosters and their stories

gray and white cat on tub.
Namir likely inhaling the smell of bleach from the freshly-cleaned tub

I’m certain Namir had a pretty frightening kittenhood, but the wonderful woman who rescued both him and Kelly related it to me in such a humorous way it actually seemed fun, and it is all I know about his rescue.

A little gray and white kitten visited the house where she lived while in college and she realized after watching him that he seemed to live at the fraternity down the street. Not certain if he had just wandered there to hang out with the guys or if they had actually adopted him, she started feeding the kitten when he visited because, as she said, she was “sure they were feeding him mashed potatoes and beer.”

She’d only lived with dogs before but came to adore the friendly and affectionate little kitten. Christmas break came and she offered to take care of the kitten while they were away and…just never managed to give him back. And possibly because he was suddenly neutered he really didn’t care for that carefree lifestyle anymore. Oh, and the food, that was definitely a plus over the bachelor diet of mashed potatoes and beer.

He wasn’t very cat-like at the time, no playing, no bathing, but she’d never owned a cat so she didn’t notice because he was really friendly and affectionate, enjoying brushings and being carried around. But he also had some specifically cat-like traits such as removing the screens from windows, opening locked doors and finding any other means of escape. He just needed a way to find a small rodent to sacrifice and bring its head to his human as proof of his gratitude for rescuing him, or perhaps as a threat to what might befall her should she fall from grace, she was never certain which it might be.

When she graduated and began working, her friends convinced her that Namir needed a buddy rather than staying home alone, so she went to the shelters and asked for “the next cat in line for euthanasia,” and that was how Kelly came to be a part of their lives.

Kelly the Studio Cat, on the windowsill.
Kelly the Studio Cat, on the windowsill.

Namir’s angry reaction to coming here and to me was a big surprise considering how friendly he’d always been with everyone in every situation, but I understood that he growled at me because I was the one who had taken away his mom, and he was one deeply devoted cat. How to explain the situation to him? His heart was broken by this abandonment and betrayal, and only time would help him heal, as I knew myself after losing Kublai, the black cat who I always call the love of my life, the year before, and still felt the twinges of his loss.

Months passed, he and Kelly finally began exploring the upstairs and then the downstairs and for a while he treated guests with more affection than he treated me. But a heart as loving as Namir’s can’t hold out forever and one day he gave me one of his affectionate swats on the elbow as I walked past him, gave me his squinty look that was a mock dare, and we were buddies.

As I’ve mentioned, Namir was the inspiration for beginning this blog, and is the kitty in the header. He had a long list of medical conditions by that time, idiopathic cystitis, herpes in his bladder, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, I told him he just liked to use big words, and while nothing slowed him down his care was constant and complicated. At the beginning, being new to blogging, I didn’t feel that writing about his many conditions and his care was appropriate. By the time I finally felt comfortable he was at his end and I didn’t have the time to share him while he was alive, or to relate his illness and care in a way that would benefit others. In his memory, I have recorded care and information for each of my cats.

 

A little more reading

You can read more about Kelly and Namir meeting each other before they arrived here in A Little Bit About Kelly, Part 4: A Friend and how they came to live with me in A Little Bit About Kelly, Part 5: Home.

You can read about October 1996 in an article entitled The Artist’s Life: The Splendor of Autumn.

I wrote a remembrance of Namir on my website after he died, My Good Friend, Namir. I also post an article about him each year around his birthday, Not a Bad Deal on a Pre-owned Cat, and he inspired what I feel is one of my best articles, the first I wrote with the intent of what to do with this new blog, Perhaps the Storm is Finally Over.


Read more Rescue Stories on The Creative Cat.


Art and Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy~~~

Prints and Greeting Cards from Portraits of Animals!

watercolor of cat in kitchen
“Darling Clementine”, watercolor, 12″ x 9″ © B.E. Kazmarski

January light is so beautiful, the sun still at a low angle streaming into windows and doors, the days often overcast and the brilliant warm yellow sunlight a respite, and this is what has Namir transfixed in the stream of sun that washes in the back door in winter—and probably a few birds bobbing about on the deck chasing stray bird seed. Read more, and purchase.

"The Roundest Eyes," matted and framed hand-tinted linoleum block print.
“The Roundest Eyes,” matted and framed hand-tinted linoleum block print.

Sometimes when I look at Kelly the only feature I can distinguish in all those tortie markings is her extremely round eyes. “The Roundest Eyes” is a hand printed, hand tinted linoleum block print. Read more and order.



Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


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Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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