{"id":14258,"date":"2014-09-22T22:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T02:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=14258"},"modified":"2014-12-28T13:12:02","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T18:12:02","slug":"my-el-grande-lovebug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=14258","title":{"rendered":"My El Grande Lovebug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"22<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas <\/em>\u2013 Today is the first day of autumn, normally a happy time, but today,\u00a0it’s not. Jack died this morning at 9:01. This\u00a0may be\u00a0the hardest post I\u2019ve ever written. It was a sad day when Alex died in March, but I didn\u2019t write about it till more than a week had passed.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to have my heart broken twice in the same year,\u201d I told the family, as I explained the events that caught us all by surprise. Yes, he was too fat. And no, he didn\u2019t exercise much any more. All\u00a0visitors this summer were charged with\u00a0getting Jack to \u201croll over.\u201d Dangle the play-strings across his back, count how many times he\u2019d respond with enthusiasm. Not many; he much preferred putting his \"22<\/a>head in your lap while you stroked him. He was diagnosed with onset kidney disease in June, and we changed his diet,\u00a0though his numbers weren\u2019t that far out of line. He remained a people cat, snuggling against anyone who\u2019d allow it. He followed me from room to room; cozy on the office sofa while I worked; taking one end of the living-room sofa while I took the other as we watched our favorite TV shows in the evening. When I got into \"22<\/a>bed at night, I\u2019d call his name, and soon I\u2019d hear his toenails clicking on the hardwood floor. He\u2019d jump on the bed and start circling round, then suddenly he\u2019d jump down again. Just like old folks. \u201cDarn, I forgot to go to the bathroom.\u201d He\u2019d trot off to his litterbox and then jump up again, this time for the night. Jack never demanded anything; for the ten years of his life he was simply lovebug sweet. My big fat black cat, El Grande, someone called him once. <\/p>\n

\"22<\/a>It happened in 2009, on a cross-country move from Seattle to Alabama when we\u2019d spent the night in Salina, Kansas. It was not unusual for Alex to hide under the bed at departure time, but that morning, when I got back from breakfast, no cats were visible. Of course they were under the bed, and I quickly retrieved Alex and put him in his carrier. Jack, however, was too far from the edge for me to reach. I coaxed and cajoled, but he simply looked at me. I called the desk for some help in moving the bed. Two maids arrived, non-English speakers. I tried to explain what I needed, with gestures. \u201cLift the mattress so I can get my cat. El gato? Under the bed.\u201d I pointed. The two tiny ladies willingly moved to the edge of the bed, but I feared the giant black cat underneath would scare the bejeebers out of them and they\u2019d drop and run. I needn\u2019t have worried. As soon as the mattress was lifted and the giant black cat revealed, one of them exclaimed with great delight, \u201cEl Grande!\u201d They stayed for a while, loving on this amazing cat, and refused the tip I offered for their help.<\/p>\n

\"22<\/a>El Grande, indeed. He was so tiny he fit in my hand when I brought him from son Scott\u2019s house in June 2004; six weeks old. Mama Cleo had a litter of five, four girls and one boy. Cleo was a soft gray color, tiny herself; the girls were spotted orange, and gray, and white. Jack was solid black. \u201cYour Daddy was a panther,\u201d I teased him over the years, as he grew larger and larger (finally reaching twenty-five pounds). His hindquarters were thick and strong like a kangaroo. Alex was a sedate seven-year-old the day Jack came to live with us, and not interested in company. That didn\u2019t bother Jack; he tirelessly jumped and played cat-to-cat, no matter how \"22<\/a>much Alex ignored him. By the time Jack was a year old, they were about the same size, and seldom left each other\u2019s company. How many pictures do I have of those two, curled together silk on fur, sound asleep by the fire. Jack\u2019s sleeping made everybody laugh. He was so unconcerned with the worries of life he often slept flat on his back, legs sticking straight into the air. Or, hanging head down from the back of the sofa, gravity be damned. He was a happy cat. Lovebug sweet.<\/p>\n

I could have loved that cat another ten years, at least. It was just a week ago he lost his appetite. When I took him to the vet, he gobbled the treats she put out. We laughed, and came home. But his world began to sink inward; he chose a spot under my desk, and stayed. No TV in the evening, no jumping on my bed at night. I thought it was a temporary thing, but it was \"22<\/a>not. Last night he had a seizure; it left him paralyzed. I eased him onto his favorite blankie and waited for dawn, brushing his beautiful black coat, talking about our Journey<\/em> and all the sights we\u2019ve seen. Dr Coleman was gentle with him this morning and Stephanie joined us in the room; the three of us stroked him softly as he left this world and went on to the next. I\u2019ll put his ashes on the shelf by Alex, my El Grande lovebug Jack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas \u2013 Today is the first day of autumn, normally a happy time, but today,\u00a0it’s not. Jack died this morning at 9:01. This\u00a0may be\u00a0the hardest post I\u2019ve ever written. It was a sad day when Alex died in March, but I didn\u2019t write about it till more than a week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[485,2998,1500,3034,3033,486,2342,3035],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14258"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14502,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14258\/revisions\/14502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}