Appreciation (50) – Toots gone too soon

Torrey Orton
May 26, 2013

Honouring her…

 

Toots went out a few days ago and did not come back.  I didn’t know she wasn’t coming until I got a phone call from a vet up the road from us later that morning…not Toots’ vet. He announced, in the de rigeur, indirect way that’s common now, she had “passed away”. Toots was a two and a half year old, short-haired tortoise shell domestic with four white paws and a white chin, amplifying eyes and whiskers of unusual grandeur. She had encountered a car somewhere over the back fence from us, the vet imagined. Damage was slight and death was quick.

A woman had brought her in to the vet’s and left without leaving a name we would have liked to thank her for her effort. Strange what people don’t want to be involved with these days – the prospect they might be thanked which turns into a prospect they might be blamed for a samaritanism spontaneously provided. Let this be our thanks. Otherwise Toots might have been an Otty – our cat who disappeared a year ago and is a fate for us worse than death.

Toots seemed to be much more weighty dead than alive. Perhaps a feature of death that the loss of life weighs more with us, or its value is more present to us in some respects than life?? Presenting her to me for her last ride, the vet had wrapped her in a greenish towel and tied up her package with a length of light purple tape, topping it off with a note saying “Honour” - her original registered name they found from the micro-chip identity tag which had brought them to me a few hours earlier…

Toots started as of a few days ago to push up daisies in our garden along with many of her predecessors, under a rock or a bush as the habit of each epoch’s burial over our 40 years here assigned them. She will probably push more vigorously than some because she had a certain sparkling liveliness mixed with an intensity of gaze that commanded attention.

Toots was Lulu’s caretaker, to the last ensuring the younger, deeply traumatized long-haired owl-faced one was cleaned up on request and providing a pillow for most sleeps. There was occasional testing of the pride lines, mostly initiated by the junior who now still wonders at her senior’s absence, retreating to her earlier anxiety about the great outdoors of our garden, wandering forth with more cautious steps because Toots isn’t there to lead the way. They had shared a caged existence for 6 months in a local cat shelter before we found took them away with us 8 months ago.

We miss Toots lots…too short loved, too long gone. Lulu does, too.

Travel funnies 2012 (5) – Cat City, Jetonsmatik and such…

Travel funnies 2012 (5) –
Cat City, Jetonsmatik and such…
Torrey Orton
Aug.1, 2012

 
One thing of note – Istanbul is cat city

 
Just outside our hotel – the slightly overstated Ottoman Imperial at the side wall of the Hagia Sophia mosque/church – a squad of local cats of various ages from 4 months to indeterminate, but nothing looking over 5 years, hangs out. They are not alone in feeling they own the place, have no fear of humans or anything else and no obvious reason to. Their only possible natural enemy, us, are at worst indifferent and best vigorously supportive, running feeding campaigns on the mosque enclosure wall tops or from concerned local eateries around town. There's only been three dogs in sight and they were moving on thru the square between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia at a moderate pace. Cats, on the other hand, snooze pretty much anywhere including a stool almost obstructing the passage of mosque visitors ambling into the Blue Mosque yesterday. And given a small chance they'll schmooze up to passers-by, when awake and feeling needy, with normal head-butting moves. Cat heaven or haven?


Background note: my understanding is that dogs are conceived as impure in Islam, hence the cat heaven milieu in Istanbul, perhaps! Google says: there's a history of cats in Istanbul. Even Obama scratched one on the Hagia Sophia pathways a year ago. That I would discourage, but then I'm probably an emerging animal disease vector kook…And, on the other hand, cats have a more promising history in Islam. Google "Aya Sophia Cats" for a sample of who we saw daily, including the mosque enclosure feeding grounds. We saw at least three dead ringers for members of our historical cat menagerie. Now that's genetic constancy for ya.


Jetonsmatik
There's a quite well done tram network which joins the tourist centre of town with neighbouring touristy areas. It looks a bit French, an impression amplified yesterday on the other touristy side of the water (the Golden Horn) as we were gearing up for a return from an arvo at a Sufi "Whirling Dervishes" event. There in the access path to the tram stop was a large cabinet boldly labelled Jetonsmatik, which clanged my French bell with authority. A jeton is a token. So, our hosts have a token-mediated payment system, as did NYC for years in its massively less salubrious subway system
.
However, as you've been expecting, there's a hitch. The jeton cost is Turkish Lira 2 for a ride to anywhere on the line. TL come in 1 and 2 TL denominations. But, the TL2 jeton can only be bought with TL1 coins. As I was trying to follow the obvious path of using my TL2 coins unsuccessfully a guy came along and said clearly "Nyet" when I held it up helplessly. Thank gods for other foreigners. They often have an intuitive understanding of gaps locals can never perceive.


"620 kgs gods"
A nice language twist. The Danes are just a few breaths away from English in many ways, and here's one. Looking at the guidelines for usage on the door of our hotel lift in Copenhagen I noted daily the limit of 8 persons but not the alternative 620kgs gods limit until the last day of 5. I'm still wondering about the weight of gods given the known weight of a soul (21 grams isn't it?). Or, how many gods does it take to make a good? Or goods to make a god? Eight guys or girls my size would sink the thing, being neither gods nor goods.
Stop it!