When I started writing blogs eleven years ago, the first one I created was this one. At the time I was unemployed in Albuquerque, applying for hundreds (yes hundreds!) of jobs and taking care of three mammals - two cats and one Reverend-in-training. One of those mammals was Remus Lupin, the subject of this posting.
One evening in October of 2003, we were on our way to the house of a friend of a friend who had kittens to give away. We were completely immersed in the Harry Potter books at the time, so when we saw the big bright full moon overhead, we both immediately decided that our new boy kitten would be named after the werewolf, Remus John Lupin. At that time he was one of four cats living with us.
One favorite memory of the boy happened very soon after we brought him home. He disappeared for a whole day. We looked everywhere for him, to no avail. We supposed he must have gotten out somehow. That evening, we were sitting on the sectional sofa with our neighbor, telling her that the kitten was missing, when a tiny head appeared from behind and between two sofa cushions. Remus came crawling out of his little cave, blinking and meowing for his supper.
Feeding the cats with Remus in the mix is how I earned the title of Cat Juggler. The only way for other cats to be able to eat is to put some food down for Remus in a room with a latching door, otherwise he will eat everybody's food before they have a chance. He grew rapidly to a 19 pounder, a formidable kitty.
His favorite toys were rubber bands, which he would stretch and snap across the room and chase. In '05 Remus and I moved the first truckload from Orlando to Belmont, Massachusetts. I carried him into the totally empty apartment, set him down, and he ran over to the far corner. There was a rubber band there. He played with it for several minutes before he realized that he was in an unfamiliar place. Then he dashed to the bathroom and hid behind the tub for a couple of days.
In Massachusetts he began one annoying habit, the first of many. When I was bending over to scoop litter boxes or clean up a mess on the floor, he would jump up on my back, claws fully engaged. Ouch.
Grace is our first dog. We've always had cats. When we were married, we each brought a cat to the relationship. By the time Grace came into the mix we had parented eight cats over twenty-six years. In 2012 we had the two we still have, Remus and Lucia. Remus was the boss of the household. That all changed when Princess Grace entered, and what an entrance it was! Remus could hear us coming up the stairs from the basement/garage, so he was at the door when it opened. Grace saw him and lunged at him. He took off across the counters, the dinner table and over to the sideboard, where the beautiful Southwestern bowl, an ordination gift from the Albuquerque congregation, went flying through the air and crashed on the ceramic tile floor. Welcome home, Grace! They get along fine now, but Remus has been avenging his fall from power with vomit and turds all over the house ever since.
So Remus traveled with us from Orlando to Belmont, to Watertown, MA, to Albuquerque, to Meadville, PA, to two addresses in Nashville and now to Jacksonville, where he is seventeen years old, 9 pounds of skin and bones and crying a lot. Saturday, Sepotember 12th will be his death day at the vet's office. He is one major pain in the ass, and he will be missed.
