Two weeks ago this morning on Monday, August 1, I backed my car out of the garage and into the street. As I began to turn the car to drive south toward Aboite Center Road I saw our little friend Eliot on our front porch. Sadly I have not seen him since.
Eliot is a cat. He is not our cat. He is our neighbor’s cat. But now he is gone and my wife and I miss him dearly. My wife started her own blog on August 7 and she beat me to blogging about Eliot in her first blogging entry that day so I have been saving some of my thoughts until now. But first read her blog about Eliot if you haven’t already.
Remembering Eliot
I usually referred to Eliot as Mr. Eliot. Since we have two female cats, I thought it appropriate that he be addressed as Mr. Eliot as would befit him as the feline man of the house. Occasionally I referred to him as Big E. And whether he was just hanging out or getting into trouble, it was always fun to have him around. There are so many funny and wonderful memories of Eliot. That even includes the two times I was working in the yard with the garage door open and he went in and helped himself by ripping open a new 20# bag of cat food.
There is the time Eliot ran into our house and burrowed under the throw on our living room couch and it took us several minutes to find him. And it definitely includes the time I got home and my wife immediately opened the garage door to notify me that she needed my help right now to find Eliot. He had snuck in the house again when she entered but she could not find him anywhere. We searched and searched and started calling for him. We could hear him answer back but we couldn’t tell where he was, upstairs or downstairs. We finally found him in the guest closet near our entry door. My wife had forgotten she had opened it for just a couple seconds and Eliot obviously wanted to explore somewhere he hadn’t been before.
More than anything else, Eliot just wanted to be around people. Countless times he would be on our front porch when I would go out and sit on our bench. I wouldn't pet him but just sit there and he would lie at my feet and purr so loudly that I could hear him without even bending down over him.
Whenever he was around, Eliot never hesitated to make friends with us, our kids, our grandson, any visitors, and even our dogs. Countless times when he would hear are patio door open for our dogs to go outside he would immediately jump the fence into our yard to play with our two dogs. More than once I would wake up in the morning and go downstairs to let our dogs out while it was still dark, go back in a few minutes to let them in, shut the door and turn around and see our two dogs with Eliot who had followed them in. He was always ready to make friends with our cats and it wasn’t until just recently that they began to tolerate having Eliot around inside the house occasionally.
What happened to Eliot? We really don’t know. For years we have been concerned about his survival as a defenseless declawed outside cat. It is possible that he might have fallen victim to another male cat, to unfriendly dogs, or to other predators that roam our neighborhood from time to time. But it seems ever more likely that he was taken by two young men. Maybe they had seen him often wandering the blocks around our neighborhood and assumed that he is a stray. Maybe they simply took him because they wanted a cat and he seemed to be available. Maybe they took him for some other reason we don't wish to know.
We can only hope that perhaps they took Eliot to give him a good home. If that is the case and Eliot is now in a good home where he is not allowed to wander outside, then he is better off even if we miss him. If he was not so lucky and he has met an untimely end, then we are thankful for how he enriched our lives over the last few years.
What made Mr. Eliot so special? I know those who don’t like animals and don’t like cats are saying “He was just a cat!” That is so true plus he wasn’t even our cat! And I think that is why he was so special to us. He wasn’t our cat. We didn’t pick him. He picked us! He wasn’t our cat. We were his family. He wanted to be with us all the time but we couldn’t make that happen for him and that is why we are missing him so much still after two weeks and wishing that we could have done more or something else for him.
What is the life's lesson? It has been less than a month yet since I lost and buried my Dad. His passing was expected and not a surprise but it was still exceedingly difficult even though we knew it was coming. I have mentioned to some and even tweeted that I know instinctively that this is the normal course of life. Children are destined to bury their parents. That is the way it should be. I added that I have always grieved for those parents who have to bury a child. That is not the way life is suppose to be and I always grieve for parents who have had a child taken from them by death.
And yet losing Eliot brings home to me another point. What about those parents who lose a child and never know what happened? We have seen that scenario playing out for weeks now in Bloomington. That is truly a tragedy and a parent’s worst nightmare. How do you cope, reach some closure, and go on with your life when you lose a child and you don’t even know what happened and how?
Here is my photo essay of our lost friend, Mr Eliot. We miss him and hope the best for him. We will never forget him and all the fun and happiness he brought to our lives through the last four years.
Eliot is a cat. He is not our cat. He is our neighbor’s cat. But now he is gone and my wife and I miss him dearly. My wife started her own blog on August 7 and she beat me to blogging about Eliot in her first blogging entry that day so I have been saving some of my thoughts until now. But first read her blog about Eliot if you haven’t already.
Remembering Eliot
I usually referred to Eliot as Mr. Eliot. Since we have two female cats, I thought it appropriate that he be addressed as Mr. Eliot as would befit him as the feline man of the house. Occasionally I referred to him as Big E. And whether he was just hanging out or getting into trouble, it was always fun to have him around. There are so many funny and wonderful memories of Eliot. That even includes the two times I was working in the yard with the garage door open and he went in and helped himself by ripping open a new 20# bag of cat food.
There is the time Eliot ran into our house and burrowed under the throw on our living room couch and it took us several minutes to find him. And it definitely includes the time I got home and my wife immediately opened the garage door to notify me that she needed my help right now to find Eliot. He had snuck in the house again when she entered but she could not find him anywhere. We searched and searched and started calling for him. We could hear him answer back but we couldn’t tell where he was, upstairs or downstairs. We finally found him in the guest closet near our entry door. My wife had forgotten she had opened it for just a couple seconds and Eliot obviously wanted to explore somewhere he hadn’t been before.
More than anything else, Eliot just wanted to be around people. Countless times he would be on our front porch when I would go out and sit on our bench. I wouldn't pet him but just sit there and he would lie at my feet and purr so loudly that I could hear him without even bending down over him.
Whenever he was around, Eliot never hesitated to make friends with us, our kids, our grandson, any visitors, and even our dogs. Countless times when he would hear are patio door open for our dogs to go outside he would immediately jump the fence into our yard to play with our two dogs. More than once I would wake up in the morning and go downstairs to let our dogs out while it was still dark, go back in a few minutes to let them in, shut the door and turn around and see our two dogs with Eliot who had followed them in. He was always ready to make friends with our cats and it wasn’t until just recently that they began to tolerate having Eliot around inside the house occasionally.
What happened to Eliot? We really don’t know. For years we have been concerned about his survival as a defenseless declawed outside cat. It is possible that he might have fallen victim to another male cat, to unfriendly dogs, or to other predators that roam our neighborhood from time to time. But it seems ever more likely that he was taken by two young men. Maybe they had seen him often wandering the blocks around our neighborhood and assumed that he is a stray. Maybe they simply took him because they wanted a cat and he seemed to be available. Maybe they took him for some other reason we don't wish to know.
We can only hope that perhaps they took Eliot to give him a good home. If that is the case and Eliot is now in a good home where he is not allowed to wander outside, then he is better off even if we miss him. If he was not so lucky and he has met an untimely end, then we are thankful for how he enriched our lives over the last few years.
What made Mr. Eliot so special? I know those who don’t like animals and don’t like cats are saying “He was just a cat!” That is so true plus he wasn’t even our cat! And I think that is why he was so special to us. He wasn’t our cat. We didn’t pick him. He picked us! He wasn’t our cat. We were his family. He wanted to be with us all the time but we couldn’t make that happen for him and that is why we are missing him so much still after two weeks and wishing that we could have done more or something else for him.
What is the life's lesson? It has been less than a month yet since I lost and buried my Dad. His passing was expected and not a surprise but it was still exceedingly difficult even though we knew it was coming. I have mentioned to some and even tweeted that I know instinctively that this is the normal course of life. Children are destined to bury their parents. That is the way it should be. I added that I have always grieved for those parents who have to bury a child. That is not the way life is suppose to be and I always grieve for parents who have had a child taken from them by death.
And yet losing Eliot brings home to me another point. What about those parents who lose a child and never know what happened? We have seen that scenario playing out for weeks now in Bloomington. That is truly a tragedy and a parent’s worst nightmare. How do you cope, reach some closure, and go on with your life when you lose a child and you don’t even know what happened and how?
Here is my photo essay of our lost friend, Mr Eliot. We miss him and hope the best for him. We will never forget him and all the fun and happiness he brought to our lives through the last four years.
