Facebook is a strange outlet for emotions and I dont usually partake in much exposure to my personal life... But today, I almost feel it necessary to grieve and let all my love be shown for a part of my life that I loved every last second of. My cat Tom, Thomas Oh Malley, as hes formally known passed away this weekend. No other cat will ever replace you and I hope you knew how much our family loved. I hope there is endless chin scratches and milk for you in cat heaven, Thomas, you deserve it! And in case any of you want to know just how deep I was for this cat... Here is an exert from a speech I gave my junior year of college.... Thats right: College. It was a commencement speech on someone or something you admired, so naturally.... I did it on Tom. Enjoy. On November 16th 1998, my parents sat me down and told me that we were moving. I was 6 years old and devastated. This will already be the fourth time I had moved in my young life. I had already moved from Louisiana to Alabama to Ohio to now MAINE, they said. My sister, who is 18 months older than me began to cry, I looked at her realizing that maybe I should be crying too and that’s when my father looked at me and said the word’s I’ll never forget, “Natalie don’t cry, we’re-moving-but-we’re-get-you-a-cat!” The last part of his sentence came out as one run on word, as if he were unsure of it as it was leaving his mouth. My mother looked at him, eyes wide, implying that I would never forget what he had just said and he better stick to his word. This shut me right up; I actually went upstairs and began packing up my room that night in anticipation of the thing I wanted most in this world, my own Cat. From a very young age, I knew that I loved cats and through the ages this has still stuck with me. Five weeks later, we arrived in Farmington Maine on Christmas Eve with an overnight forecast of nearly 100 inches of snow. My father had already been there for a few weeks working and I had heard rumors while ease dropping on my mom’s telephone conversation, that my cat was expensive… too expensive in her opinion. Looking back, I laugh at the fact that my father didn’t just go to the pound and pick up anything that even resembled a cat because I would have been tremendously satisfied with just any cat. But if you know my father you’d know he likes the best of the best which in this case was a pure bred Persian cat, costing him a little under a grand. Today, I curse my father’s expensive taste because the moment I laid eyes on my new baby kitten I knew I would never again settle for anything less. here in a basket was an little orange ball of fur, looking up at me with his little smushed in face and big wide eyes. I named his Thomas Oh’ Malley or’ Tom’ for short, from my favorite Disney movie which was ‘Aristocats’, shocker! Needless to say as Christmas’s came and gone, Tom remained my favorite Christmas present and still is today. I knew the moment I received this cat that my life had changed; I was no longer responsible for just one person, at age 6 I assumed the full responsibly of being a parent. I had a little orange fluff ball that was all mine and needed me to take care of him. Throughout the years, we moved some more, back to Louisiana and from there to various cities and eventually to Alabama again but it no longer mattered as much to me because I never felt as though I was alone, I had my Tom. In fact, it was through being a parent to Tom that I learned why my parents got so worried whenever they couldn’t find me or when I went out and didn’t return till late. Thomas was indeed a rebellious tom cat leaving for days for adventures bringing back presents for me and would even get into several neighborhood gang fights. I had the honor of breaking up a few of these, as I would awake to the awful sound of cats in a standoff, in which I would quickly march my little ass outside, and grab my fluffy kitty and chase whomever he was fighting till kingdom come, I was a mama bear. The truth is, besides my family, Tom was the only solid normalcy in my life when we would change surroundings. As I became older and matured not only did my environment continue to change from high school to college, I began to change as a person, but he always stayed the same. Every night I would hear him scratching at my door and I would let him in so that he could be my second pillow. In fact, it was the soothing sound of his loud purr that put me to sleep many nights and then like clock word he would meow that guttural meow at 7am, becoming my alarm clock most mornings saying ‘mom I’m hungry.’ When people first meet Tom they say he looks pissed off, or they ask me if he speaks in a thick old English accent but after spending more than twenty minutes with him, you’ll be in love. Tom is a lap cat, not the kind that runs and hides... oh no, he loves attention and has been a constant source of joy throughout my life. He was there for it all, for the fun and adventurous elementary days, to the extremely awkward junior high days and then eventually to the high school days. Even still today, when I go home from college, I of course, try to remember to greet my family first but they know the second thing I want to see is my Thomas Oh Malley. Honestly, I don’t even know how old Tom is, I always ignore that question when people ask me and writing this speech has almost made me think about it, but he is going to live forever or at least I have forced myself to believe this. Now while giving this speech may have just further convinced you that I will be a future crazy cat lady, it was a risk I had to take. I believe everyone should get a small glimpse into knowing Thomas Oh’ Malley! RIP Thomas Oh Malley 1998-2014
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 23:12:45 +0000
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