In Memoriam

Rest in peace Lilith, 2002-2020

It’s really hard to write a blog post about a cat who was mine for almost eighteen years. If she were my kid, I would have just sent her off to her senior year of high school. She was my baby, my best friend, and my trusted companion. For most of her life until her recent illness, she slept next to me every night. She moved five times with me across two states and three counties. My relationship with Lilith is older than my relationship with Darren.

Lilith very clearly claimed me as her human from the very start. She was a lap cat and sat on my lap if it was ever available. She hated competing for my lap. She really didn’t like the kitty I adopted her with, Elijah, because he would pounce on her and knock her off my lap. When we got Jake and Kira, she especially didn’t like Jake because he jumped on her and tried to play. She could hold her own though. Even after she went blind, if he jumped on her, she would swipe him in the face.

When Lilith was about three years old, she ran away for 6 weeks. One day she ran from the house into the garage, and then when I opened the garage, she got spooked and ran away. Darren and I canvassed the neighborhood looking for her. We knocked on all the neighbors doors, and some thought maybe they saw her outside eating cat food that people left for outdoor cats, but we didn’t get much in the way of promising leads. It felt like she was never coming home, so I went outside and washed out her litter box. She must have smelled it, because that day when we were heading to Tim’s birthday celebration at the Beef House, Lilith just showed up at the door. Darren saw her, and we got out of the car, and I called her to me from the backyard. She was so skinny that I brought her to the Humane Society to confirm it was her microchip. And she never ran away again after that day.

She was very healthy for the first 16 years of her life. Her name means “woman of the night,” and she was absolutely a kick ass feminist kitty after her kick ass feminist Jewish namesake. She was beloved by many of our friends who visited with us and pet sat for us over the years. She co-hosted my podcast with me for three years, and my viewers frequently talked about how much they loved Lilith.

She was a tortie kitty and a talker. In fact, she talked for 11 hours straight when we made the drive from Illinois to Pennsylvania. Only in her last day on earth did she start to get quieter and quieter, and she barely spoke this morning as I drove her to the vets office.

Take care my beautiful precious princess kitty. In kitty heaven, Elijah will be there, but you can have a house to yourself if you prefer. Sit on laps all day long and love on your humans. We will miss you and think of you often.

See Elijah’s in memoriam blog if you would like to see more about Lilith and her brother: https://travelingsockknitter.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/in-memoriam/