Sailbourne

“And wept when it was all done/For bein’ done too soon …” — Neil Diamond

Nita, 1997-2003

Joe made note of Nita’s passing in his blog, better than I could ever hope to do: Somebody Holds the Key

Lilith, 1998-2008

We always said that Lilith was not Joe’s cat, but that Joe was her person. When we met her at the animal shelter, she gave me a friendly look and sniff, then turned to Joe. She ran up his legs, over his lap, planted herself on his chest and started purring and kneading — a ritual she followed for the rest of her life.

She wasn’t, as people often thought, named after the character in “Cheers.” Her name came from the mythical Lilith, about whom we’d been doing some research at the time we adopted the cat. Joe felt that the cat was much like the mythical figure — that she could really be a wonderful and loving person if given half a chance — and so indeed it turned out to be. We also called her “the chirping hellbeast,” because when she needed to say something, she didn’t meow — she chirped. Or squeaked. She was also known as “Godzilla-head” — first, from the rounded shape of her muzzle, which reminded us of that famous Japanese monster; and secondly, the fact that in her younger days, Lilith had a tendency to treat our entire house the way Godzilla treats downtown Tokyo.

She was our security chief, our ten-pound panther; I doubt we will see her like again.

Joe has told her story, in beautiful and complete detail:

http://darkkarma.blogspot.com/2008/06/sympathy-for-chirping-hellbeast-part-1.html