ingrid

A time of instability and change

  • she/her

Ask Me About Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

Every day you get a picture of my dog, Whimsy.

There will be posts about books.

Also, apparently, opera.



Ivan was the best cat in the world. He was the best natured cat, the friendliest cat, but above all, he was the loudest cat.

I didn't adopt Ivan, I found Ivan and he immediately decided he was my cat and lived in my apartment.


It was late March, which in Saskatchewan is still winter, but winter with warm breezes and sunshine. I was nearing the end of my first (and last) year of law school. I was in a pretty bad place when one Sunday morning I was woken up by what sounded like a cat being tortured to death. My apartment was at the back of the building, looking out on the parking lot, so I put on my bathrobe and looked there. Nothing. I looked in the strip of space between my building and the neighbouring building. Nothing. I went to the front of the building. Nothing. I went across the street from my building and past several cars until I found a white kitten under one of them, unharmed and relaxed, periodically meowing like some kind of creature from hell. The kitten was around four or five months old and happy to be scooped up and brought into my apartment. I tried to put him in my bathroom to isolate him from Tir because who knows what the health status of a random screaming kitten you found under a car is.

This did not last.

Tir and the kitten immediately took to each other while I had friends come over to help me make and put up FOUND CAT posters.

FOUND
WHITE KITTEN
VERY LOUD

I never got any responses to my found posters. I called the shelter to see if anyone had reported losing a white kitten, but no one ever claimed this incredibly friendly little creature. Later, my mother theorized that he was dumped by an owner who couldn't handle the noise.

Loud, bumbling, and personable, I named the kitten (Lord) Ivan after the hunky but comparatively dim cousin of the protagonist of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels.

When Ivan went to the vet to be neutered, they determined he was deaf by the scientific method of how he slept through all the animal noises in the back, heavy objects being dropped directly behind him, and shouting near him.

Ivan was a cat who seemed to have been put in this world for the sole purpose of counteracting the stereotype of cats being aloof, particular, restrained. Ivan would have loved you. Ivan loved everyone, animals and people. He didn't register if someone wasn't equally loving in return.

Ivan loved playing fetch. He won over several people who later became cat people by his enthusiasm for fetch. His favourites were pens, but he was also a fan of combs, screwdrivers, popsicle sticks, and knives. In later age he still carried these things around in his mouth, announcing his finds.

He loved being near your face, on your shoulder, and was proactive about it. If you bent over to tie your shoe? That was an invitation for Ivan to jump on your back and climb up to your shoulder. Even if you were a tradesperson he'd never met before trying to get a job done.

He was incredibly clumsy. He once fell off a bookshelf in the middle of the night and landed on the vacuum cleaner, turning it on.

He loved being vacuumed.

He loved cuddling. He loved grooming his siblings and snuggling with them. He loved sleeping on your head.

When my mother's cancer reached the point she was in bed more often than not, Ivan would curl up on her chest and purr, and she'd hum for him.

Until I figured out how to protect it, Ivan figured out that my alarm clock was what woke me up and would knock it off the dresser if he wanted me to get up and feed him.

Ivan once took a nap in a planter full of cacti.

Ivan rolled with everything, from meeting new animals and people, to travel, to being plopped in strange houses, and even his own injuries. He was a clown of a cat in motion and a beacon of comfort and zen when at rest.

He was the best boy and my life and home feel empty without him.

Love you forever, Lord Ivan the World's Loudest Cat.


You must log in to comment.