Kiki 2002-2024

“No more cats’” she said. “You are 71 and I am approaching 70 now. If we adopt one more kitten, we will be taking care of it when we reach 90.”

We have 14 cats now, most are very healthy and active. Our cats tend to live long lives. As it is, we’ll be taking care of the ones we have when we are in our mid-80’s.

Let me introduce you to the Nagahama Cat Crew...

Winter – Small and white with one blue eye and one gold eye, and a mean temper. Found her in the road by the old castle ruins nearby. She was OK but moving really slowly like she didn’t care if she got squashed by a car. Lets me pet her on the head only, with an appointment. 5 y/o.

Mayday – Huge grey Korat lost in the sugar cane field as a kitten, screaming for his mommy, food, somebody to save him, therefore “Mayday - Mayday...!” A one-person cat, loves me and barely tolerates other people. 15 y/o.

Tim – Grey and white striped kitten found near our home in 2017 with a broken hip joint. Fully recovered, very smart, talks to us a lot, opens things meant to stay closed. 7 y/o.

Happy – Another grey and white striped kitten found on the road unharmed back in 2018, dehydrated and starving, unable to run away from the giant who stopped his car and put him in a small cage always in the back seat for the purpose of saving dehydrated starving kittens. He and Tim could be twins, except they were found one year and miles apart. 6 y/o.

Shanti – Small rotund black and white, found us when she was feral, just wanted some food, hung around, now an indoor fluff-ball. 8 y/o.

Blackberry – Found her in the bushes near the home of a friend who was departing Okinawa. I felt that plucking the small black kitten out of the bushes was like picking a big blackberry. 12 y/o, now nearly deaf.

Stitch – Orange, super energetic, and a nuisance. Finds ways to get into the food cabinet and tears up the plastic pouches of dry (and wet) food. Too cute to be angry with. 7 y/o.

Missy – Feral female, lost one eye fighting outdoors, had surgery for that but is still not spayed, I am the only one who can pet her. Lives in the largest cage we could find, will not come out of her cage. Seems content to stay where she is, but if I can get her into a small carry-cage (without losing a few pints of blood) I will have her spayed. Then I will try to introduce her to the cat society in the large room where her cage is. At this point, they only say Hi through the bars (all the cats are neutered or spayed). Missy is maybe 5 y/o. Vet said Missy has had a few litters before she came to stay with us.

Paprika – Small orange and black striped tiger, very friendly, sometimes make chirping sounds like a bird rather than meowing. 6 y/o.

Lotus – Orange cat, son of Popcorn who was not our cat but the official feral neighborhood mouse/rat disposal unit. Lotus likes to be petted and brushed, but only I or my wife can approach him. Outdoor cat. Probably 10 y/o.

Pumpkin – Orange and brownish tiger cat, used to be chubby and her face looked like a round jack-o’-lantern, hence the name “Pumpkin”. Had a stroke about 2 years ago, miraculously recovered, now walks with her head somewhat tilted to her left. Very friendly, meow is rather rough like a croaking sound (always was). 17 y/o.

Mari – Large and muscular grey and white, found as a tiny starved and cold, wet kitten in the women’s restroom at a funeral home about 2 years ago, when my wife attended the funeral of a coworker’s father. Quickly adapted to indoor home life, now strapping big and extremely energetic.

Maia – Another grey and white striped tiger cat. Not really ours but the owners don’t take particularly good care of him, so he comes to the best restaurant in the neighborhood (our house). Wants desperately to be our indoor cat but even though neutered, he sprays. We keep him well-fed. He and Lotus eye each other suspiciously all day, and go wherever the other one goes. Best friend enemies. Probably 4 y/o and big for his age.

Kiki – Calico cat who came to my school the first year I taught here on Okinawa. Christmas Day 2002. Tiny and fluffy tri-color, no one wanted her. She ran into the Teacher’s Room, and immediately jumped into my lap when I called her with the silly little kissy noises cat-owners use to call their cats. We’ve been inseparable since. She was indoor-outdoor until in 2005 she was hit by a passing truck and broke her pelvis in 3 pieces. She had corrective surgery, but also lost her huge fluffy tail in the deal. So she has lived most of her life in our bedroom.

Until last year, she was large, fluffy, heavy with muscle, and quite agile. Now she has aged, quite suddenly.

Actually, Kiki started me on this A2K entry. She is 22 y/o now, blind, nearly deaf, and has arthritis. Until last week, she could barely stand and walk to use the litter box, or to get to the food and water. She has a limited range of hearing, only for high-register frequency. I placed an mp4 player near her bed so she could have some sound by way of a mix of orchestral music, violin solos, piano, and “music box music”, and she was able to locate her bed by the sound. She learned that by facing the sound, going left is food and water about 1 meter, and going right was her litter box, about 1 meter.

Kiki started having seizures last Wednesday night. Every 2 or 3 minutes, a set of 2 different types of violent, thrashing seizures. My wife (Sumako) and I were up with her all night – no sleep, just sat by her to comfort her, gently hold her paws and legs when her seizures became too violent, and sooth her between attacks.

Sumako and I took leave from school the next day (we are both school teachers), and we took Kiki to the vet. Especially her blood ammonia was off the scale, along with other factors like dehydration (despite that she drank lots of water), kidney failure, and other internal organ near-shutdowns. She was put on an IV drip with water and anti-seizure meds, and she calmed down immediately. But not much improvement other than that. She cannot stand, walk, use the litter box, or eat on her own anymore. She recognizes us by touch and smell, and tries to lift her head. But she has near-total organ failure, and there is no recovery. We can’t keep her around just to watch her slowly fade away, sick, in a nearly silent and dark world, something to make us feel that we “kept her comfortable until the end”. I don’t believe she is “comfortable”.

This is age, and while not a world record, 22 is a very old age for a cat. There is no “getting better”...

Very sadly, we will say goodbye to her at the vet clinic in about 12 hours after posting this. It isn’t easy to post that, but if I don’t, I know someone is going to ask why we didn’t make the decision to gently let her go. Then I’ll have to answer anyway.

I know some of you reading this have been through this before with your beloved pets who were actually family to you. It's never easy. Kiki has been with us through thick and thin for the past 22 years. She labored long and hard to give us the best years of her life. It’s time to let her rest.

And yes, I believe we’ll meet again.