The Memory Hut or Ode to the Pirate in Soft Cat Paws

The Memory Hut or Ode to the Pirate in Soft Cat Paws

            There is a place in my mind that I call The Memory Hut.  It is where I go, open the door and walk over to an old battered oak chest of drawers that I keep there. Sometimes, I linger over a partially opened drawer with all of its bits and pieces, touching lightly with my fingertips, exploring, hovering over others telling myself not to go there but memories are like threads in a blanket or garment they hold things together, each is a unique stepping stone, a stopping place in our conscious or unconscious self, they come as they may and unravel without warning.

            These set of memories are called Puck.

I put you with your plastic bag

inside a ceramic pot to rest today.

I will wait until another tomorrow comes

when the salt has dried on my glasses

and having rinsed them to mingle with the ocean

I can pretend that you are purring on my lap.

            My husband and I have gotten through the days by telling ourselves that it was the right thing to do, to sit with you resting on the floor waiting for the light to go out from your eyes. But when we went home, we imagined that the shadows held you waiting to greet us, we heard your voice above the wind as we walked through the house.  While Vesta ate her meal, we heard your sounds at your feeding bowl that was now washed and put away so I would not see the memory of you sitting there.

            You decided that we were to be your home on a sunny July day.  I was not looking for another cat.  I had my Shadowfax at home. Even at barely four months old, you had a mind that told you that I was a sucker waiting, an easy mark, a warm lap with a steady hand and we went home.

            Your father named you after he had greeted you when he walked in the door saying, “Well, who are you?”  I told him that we had been to the Vet for shots so this small black stray of a kitten could find a good home.  My husband rolled his eyes, asking if I had stolen someone’s kitten, he said that we needed to find the owner.  You never left but you remained our running, leaping, purring, black shadow. 

            Butter was our friend when you ran up the tall pine tree outside by the driveway.  I worried, afraid that you would be stuck, cold and hungry throughout the night while you rested on a high branch.  While your father coaxed and encouraged your bright eyes to lead the rest of you to follow down the tree, I got butter on my fingers and called up to my brave climber, “Butter!”  You raced as quickly down the pine tree as up and your soft warm body was soon in my arms, purring and licking the butter from my fingers.

            You remained an explorer, climbing the rooftop of our home causing your mother to worry while my husband said that you had gotten up there and you would be okay.  I was anxious as the sun continued to set and the evening chill from the ocean crept closer to the house.

”You were a fireman, get a ladder and get him down.” I told my husband.

He did but only after he talked to you, our growing kitten.  You had raced across the shake wooden roof to the peak and peered down on my husband, your father standing on the ladder. Gazing with big yellow eyes in your black whiskered face, you listened.

“If you want to get down, you need to come over here to me.” My husband told you.

After a few moments, you, my small black Puck walked over to your father, letting him pick you up, going limp in his arms as he carefully climbed down the ladder, thus ended another day of adventures.

You longed for companionship and slept with Shadowfax, our soft gray and white long haired female cat (when she was asleep and didn’t know you were there). She didn’t like to play with you.  She didn’t share and barely tolerated the fact that you existed in her space.  But you were a bundle of love and energy that bounded about the house as when she was napping on my lap when the whirlwind that was you hit the couch three times including my lap and was gone leaving us both bewildered.

December came for our summer little black kitten with an artificial tree pulled out of long cardboard box.  I was prepared for when this little bundle of curiosity bit the plastic branches, cold water sprayed from the bottle, head shaking, you backed away and headed for another part of the tree. Two more squirts and you avoided the tree. 

But the strings of colored lights bouncing on the carpet as they were unwound enticed your quick black paws and sharp teeth.  Cold water streamed from the bottle in my hands until you tired of the game and left for a sunny spot to view the items of wonder coming out of boxes, taped up bags, and bins of plastic.  The tree was placed in the corner where it ruled supreme, ornaments dangled out of reach, an angel gazed down to bless the house.  We went to church for Christmas eve services, content that all was well.  

            When we returned, the Christmas tree was down and the Christmas angel was nowhere to be found. We laughed, the three of us, my husband, my son and I as we searched the house looking for an angel hiding in plain sight. 

            The years held so many memories of delight, amusement, and surprises that a growing kitten can bring to a house and home filled with those that love him. There are so many that I have decided that a partial list is better suited to the wonderment that was our kitten, our teenager, mature, stately grown-up  that continued his adventures into the age of old.

            Here is Puck’s list:

            Happiness is sitting on either the back or front porch with a friend but not too close, I am not that friendly, friends being other cats from the neighborhood.

            Getting my own kitten, mom decided because I was friendly with others that I could have a kitten.  Vesta, she is a small Siamese mix female named by my big human brother after an asteroid.

            I loved gardening with my mom in the yard, sitting in the sun, stretching out to have my belly rubbed. Rolling in the fresh dirt, it made my mom laugh and was guaranteed to get her to rub and pet me while she brushed the dirt out of my fur.

            Dad, he snores and sleeps in a room with me and Vesta while our mom dreams behind a closed door.  I woke him up with my claws held in while I poked at his nose.  It seemed to work.

            My mom has the warmest backside.  I loved to sleep on the couch underneath the blanket with her legs surrounding me, sometimes snuggling right against her bottom. Ah, Heaven.

            “Anyone want avocados?” My mom and dad discovered that I liked them when they forgot to put them away and could not find them in the morning.  Okay, they found parts of them or a nice neat little hole drilled to the brown seed with teeth marks all around.  Mom just cut around my work and she and my big brother ate the rest but Dad said, “No, way.”  Funny, because he is the one that was always cleaning the litter box for Vesta and me.   But everyone has buttons that they don’t like pushed. Oh, yeah.  Don’t do melons.  Believe me, I tried and my family is still trying to figure out how I got my teeth into it.  It was talent, just plain raw talent.

            Ah, food.  Pistachios, they were there on my first Christmas before the tree episode.  Hey, they were placed in a dish on the coffee table, I was there, they were there, my mistake, Mom was there.

            Beans, refried, have you ever noticed how when they are opened, they make a certain particular sound, not like tuna fish in the can sound but kind of a soft squish.  They were a favorite of mine that is all I am saying.

            I have a longer list but it is things that my mom and dad and big brother never shared but you can imagine, long days of sleeping in the sun, racing around the house with Vesta, climbing fences, hanging on rooftops with friends, visiting the neighbors for a snack.

Hey, I have moved on now and guess what, Shadowfax doesn’t hate me anymore.  I don’t miss my family because their love traveled with me.  After all, it is all we are, love.  Thanks, I had a good time.