Gourd is my dad’s cat. He got him after hurricane Katrina in 2005. Gourd was a character. He would lay in the most uncomfortable positions on the dining room chairs. He’d change it up, he would take everything in spells. One thing he loved was my dad. Gourd would spend as much time as possible in my dad’s lap. Dad would always make sure he had plenty to eat. He had his territory. When Fake Mary, my Blue Russian cat, moved in Gourd and Fake Mary never really got along. They just tolerated one another in the same house.
In early 2017 is when I realized Gourd played the role of a Schrödinger cat, he has done a fine job of occasionally being Donald Trump in cat form.
My dad died August 2017 and ever since then Gourd has been a different cat, he hung around the house. He didn’t want to spend anytime with anybody eventually. Slowly over time he got more and more disconnected. Then in February 2018 Fake Mary died, after that he started spending more time outside, only coming inside to eat. One day when I left cat food out for a stray, he claimed it as his own and stopped coming inside entirely. Always spending time on the porch or under the shed; he never went off far.
I then ended up with Caterpillar, a 3 month old kitten. If Gourd was going to become an outside cat, I wanted a kitty to spend time. So Caterpillar showed up. I had them meet a few times, but they were still at the stage of needing supervised visitation.
On the Summer Solstice, coincidental one day after my dad’s birthday, I was leaving for work and Gourd wanted to come in for a change. I told him that I couldn’t leave him alone with Caterpillar and you could just see the sadness in this cats face. I need to spend more time with this sad cat. That was the last time I saw Gourd. He’s been missing since then, at first I thought maybe he went for an adventure like he did once before, but it’s been over a week now. He would have come home by now. It is hot and there are a lot of snakes around, so he may have gotten bitten. But I think he died of a broken heart. He’s out in the woods somewhere, with a broken heart.
I’m sorry Gourd, you took up with my dad. I tried to take up with you when he left us, but when our friendship didn’t happen I got Caterpillar and I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with you. You did stay throughout dad’s first birthday post death and for that Thank you.
I believe dad would find this picture humorous. I like it.
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