When Annalisa and I were married 13 years ago yesterday, she had three cats--Athos, Porthos and Aramis. They are the Three Musketeers if you ready old books or watch bad movies. Of course the main Musketeer is D'Artagnan, and that is one criticism of the story for most of the past two centuries.
Actually, Aramis, who spent way too much time sitting in the middle of streets, died just before we were married. Athos, the more adventurous of the two remaining brothers, lived several years longer, but also succumbed to injuries from spending just that extra moment in the road.
Porthos lived a fairly long life for a cat. He and his brother Athos were excellent hunters. They left the remains of mice and baby bunnies near the back door so we could see how proficient they were in small furry animal population control. After the demise of Athos, Porthos was less inclined to hunt and, like many older carnivores, put on a lot of weight. At his weight peak, his hind feet would disappear under his fat when he sat down.
But like some obese people, he managed to remain healthy despite a sedentary lifestyle. In the last year he rapidly lost weight. Last night when I switched the laundry at midnight, Porthos was asleep on a small rug. He didn't move when I turned the light on, but I thought I saw him breathing. The next morning he had not moved. I checked. He was not breathing.
Porthos is buried in the flower garden near our garage between Athos and our dog Lucky.
We will be getting a dog in September after we return from vacation. We had been planning to get a dog for a while and now we won't have to worry that a new and energetic dog will torment our geriatric feline.
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Ah, RIP dear kitty.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the loss. You should surprise Analisa with a kitten (hopefully she won't read this note) when you get the puppy. Raise them together. Imagine the antics they could stir up to keep you all laughing. Just a thought. In keeping with the literary line of names, you could consider Argos for the dog, from Homer's Odyssey, the faithful companion of Odysseus.
ReplyDeleteThe cat, Midnight Louie from Carole Nelson Douglas books. He was a 20lb tomcat. Hope you guys find the pet(s) to share your home with. And hope the pets let you stay after you get them there. :-)
Meredith--Thanks
ReplyDeleteSusan--Thanks, but just the dog for me.
Critics about the title of "Les Trois mousquetaires" haven't obviously actually read the book. D'Artagnan evolves from a Cadet de Gascogne to a full Mousquetaire during the whole story because of his strong camaraderie with a trio of Musketeers."Athos, Porthos et Aramis" was actually the title planned initially by Dumas.
ReplyDeleteSeems your late Porthos bore his name faithfully as far as his affinity with food is concerned!
Brigitte
Cher Anon--En Irak , j'ai lu une version abrégée de Les Trois Mousqutaires en français. J'aime le livre , mais je pense que vous trouverez les "quatre "critique tout à fait commun. Mais ils sont tous stérilisés , donc pas les amours du groupe.
ReplyDeleteGood bye to Porthos. Our cat Fax (also the last of a theme-named group: Xerox, Fax, and Copy) died last winter at the age of about 20. She was a spirited and healthy cat up until very near the end.
ReplyDelete