Star

We lost our longest-standing member of the feral cat tribe this past week.

Star came to us with her mommy when we first moved into this house.  They appeared on our front porch when we were in here painting, before we had any furniture moved over.

Mom was a pretty siamese mix, and baby was all black, except for a bright white blaze on her chest.  We named mommy ChinaCat, and baby Star.

China turned out to be a very prolific mother, having several litters of kittens in our yard.

As time went by, we started doing trap/neuter/release on the feral cats in our neighborhood.

We successfully trapped China, and some of Star's multiple younger siblings (we got them all at the same time on our first attempt, and took them away to a rescue), but Star was always too wily to get into the trap.

We watched her do it...she knew not to step on the trigger, and could go in, eat the food, and back out!  We even tried to disguise the trigger.... but she was too smart.

She has spent almost her entire life in our yard. She had one litter, that we know of, before we finally trapped her, and only one of those kittens survived.

When she came back with a kitten, she took up semi-permanent residence in our safe, dog free back yard.

Well, one fateful day, she was in the trap eating, and her kitten, a carbon copy of Star who we thought was a girl at the time, went into the trap WITH her, and he must have tripped the trigger.

We got them at the same time!  By this time, we had trapped and released several feral cats, but this was a major triumph!

The result was that we found out that Stella was a boy, so we named him Luke Skywalker, and he and Star became inseparable.

Neither of us has ever known of two cats who were more bonded.  They would walk with their tails curled around one another.

They had other places they would go across the street from us, but, as I mentioned before, they spent most of their time in our yard.

Fast forward to the past few weeks....

During the week that we had almost constant rain, Star vanished, and we think she got trapped somewhere across the street, because when she returned, she was clearly ill, emaciated, and dehydrated.

Every year, she suffered from summer and fall allergies that caused her to wheeze and have nasal discharge.  This was different.... MUCH.

We fed her moist food, and hoped for the best.  We talked to her and told her to please stay in our yard.  There is shelter HERE, and safety, and food HERE....

Then it rained again and she was gone for another 36 hours or so.

This time, when she returned on Monday, it was clear that she was dying.   She was crouched on the front porch, watching for us to come home.  She was so frail!

She stumbled into the back yard for the usual dinner routine, but couldn't eat.  We offered her water, but she did not drink.

She let us pet her.  Luke was hovering nearby, watching.

For 7 years, we had been able to sit sort of close to her, and I got her to play with a toy on a stick a few times (I play with Luke sometimes, but Star was much more afraid to try), but she NEVER let us get close enough to touch her.  This was a sure sign that she was at the end.

Before I went to dance class, I went out to look for her, and she was curled up in the corner near our hot tub.  I asked her to please just rest there, and promised that we would see to her, and that we would continue to care for her boy, and the tribe.  She gazed at me, and gave me one last slow blink of her eyes.

Dave talked to her as well, and made the same promises.  We both told her good night, and left her alone after that.

The next morning, she was still there, and she had died.  Dave covered her with a towel, but we had to go to work.

Luke was, again, nearby.  Poor boy....

After work, we stopped and bought a piece of flag stone, and Dave dug the grave while I collected the body and wrapped it in the towel.

We buried her in one of the spots in the yard where she liked to sun herself.  It's next to the grave of our beloved Louie.  Luke was vigilant.

It was a very tearful, and love filled end for a cat who would have otherwise been un-cared-for, and whose passing would have been a nuisance at anyone else's house.

I like to think her spirit is still with Luke, and that she will watch over the tribe now, from across the rainbow bridge.