Goodbye, Tortuga.
On April 21st, 2024, at 20:39, Tortuga was gently put to rest after a three year-long struggle with what was probably cancer and a short-lived victory over a mycoplasma bacterial blood infection.
She first took advantage of our yard-cat support program in 2009 as a juvenile cat and passed at about 15 or 16 years of age. She lived a good life, had 5 kittens on March 27th, 2010 that were all weaned and adopted out successfully, and grew old never wanting for food, shelter, or comfort, and never suffering any meaningful illness or injury until her last year.
Over the years, she was the beneficiary of a very strong community support network that took her in whenever she needed it and gave her loving care. She had housemates, human and feline, and a few canine over the years and was always gracious and pleasant, if not always enthusiastic about the four-legged companions.
I am eternally, deeply grateful to everyone who helped her over the years and who made my work and travel possible and Tortuga’s life pleasant and comfortable in my absence, especially in her later years as she needed more care.
She was the best, sweetest cat I’ve ever known. She was always polite, always pleasant, and never scratched or bit, not even when startled or annoyed by dogs. She never broke things or pushed things over or made a mess.
She wasn’t a big fan of other cats, and only a select few were tolerated as guests in her garden. She wanted to start every morning by marking her territory and she ruled her garden with a fierceness that vastly exceeded her tiny size. She started there, spent her last day in the sun there, and will spend eternity there.
Almost every night I was home, she slept in my bed with me. Almost every day I was working at home, she would hop up and sleep quietly between my keyboard and monitor on her little bed there. She didn’t meow much or fuss but purred easily and happily.
In later years, she’d sometimes wake me just before light by prodding my back or nipping to ask for pets; after 5 or 10 minutes of purring and being petted, she would settle back to sleep. It was a ritual that I came to very much enjoy.
Whenever I came home from my travels, no matter how late, as I opened the door into the living space, I’d hear her stir, jumping down from the attic maybe or from my bed or the window perch upstairs and tap-tap-tap down the stairs and trot up to greet me, rubbing my leg and purring. She’d let me scoop her up and snuggle her, though she wasn’t normally a carry cat, and then walk circles around me for 10 or 15 minutes, welcoming me home in the sweetest way possible. She came to know my departures too and always gave me a look of disappointment, sometimes refusing to come to the door to see me off, but usually relenting for one last scritch on the head.
When Corona hit in 2020, I was in Iraq after leaving her in January of 2020 thinking I’d be back in the spring. I couldn’t make it home for almost two years. The longest I’d been away before then was less than 6 months and even that only once or twice. She’s a cat, and by then an old cat, so I didn’t expect much, but in January of 2022, I opened the door late at night to the sound of her tap-tap-tapping down the stairs to greet me.
She was laid to rest in the garden she ruled for 15 years.
I went through the thousands of pictures I’ve taken of her and others have shared with me and tried to find a few from every year from her first foray in 2009 until her last day. If you knew her at some point during this time, I hope this brings back fond memories of a very special kitty.
2009: Tortuga finds food, takes over a house, and becomes part of the family.
2010 Tortuga has kittens and settles into her role as queen of the garden.
2011 Tortuga takes ownership of my desk.
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020 Corona time.
2021 Corona time.
I didn’t get to see Tortuga at all from January of 2020 until January of 2022.
2022 Reunited.
2023
A typical welcome home when I’d been away too long.