It will be two weeks on Thursday since we last saw our cat Alfonzo.
He was my constant and dedicated opponent for the past ten years. I was the main person to whom he addressed his complaints and the most likely target of his biting and scratching. If I wanted him inside, he usually wanted out; if I put him out, he soon meowed to come back in.
I only planted one thing last year, and Alfonzo sat on it.
He was a large cat and a force to be reckoned with.
A master at relaxing.
Rolling in the dust and dirt,
the driveway was his kingdom.
We tried, 
but he could never truly be an inside cat.
Oh Alfonzo. You enormous grumpy cat. Whatever happened to you: the sly coyotes out back, the scurrying bobcat, or the cougar on her rounds? You long ago used up your nine lives, and now we cannot know how it ended. You disappeared like the barn cats of my childhood.
You had a charmed and surprisingly long life here with us. And I miss you.
Such a sad and yet celebratory post. You proved to me, once again, that it is possible to laugh and grieve simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteoh alfonzo. i'll think of you happily making someone miserable, somewhere...you were always grudgingly sweet to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sad for you. My neighbor's cat showed up after two weeks - he had been trapped in my other neighbor's garage!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark. We are simultaneously sad, less hopeful that he will come back, and laughing at what a character this boy always was.
ReplyDeleteSlim Pickins, while it may have seemed grudgingly sweet to you, that was really his best shot at true love.
Rebecca, I will be 98% elated if he shows up at this point.
Oh, I am sad. I hope he does show up and I hope you don't find him mangled somewhere.
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