The Rescue

It was a hot, August afternoon in 2003. I was driving in my 1990 Acura Integra with broken A/C. I remember sweating profusely on my journey to the animal control to meet a photo-less listing on Petfinder.com. As I walked in the door, I noticed there was a large cage in the front room with the most beautiful, blue-eyed boy. We locked eyes as I bent down and he instantly sidled up eagerly trying to cram his nose through the square hole to touch my fingertips. I giggled as his feet sloshed about in his water bowl from his haste to try to get at me.

"This has to be him," I thought to myself.

The staff pulled him out and led us both to a private room with a floor littered in cloth mice and feathered toys that will quickly be ignored. He jumped into my lap immediately purring and frantically burying his face into my side as if to say, "You finally found me..."

$25 later, warranting the nickname I'd later give him of my "Bargain Kitty", he was coming home with me.

And, that was it. From then on, I had my best friend. I had only lived in Nashville for three months and was desperate for a sense of home. And, here he was needing the same thing.

Over the years, his hugs went from five seconds of simple obliging to him meowing at me in protest when I had to put him down after a few minutes. We would lay together eye-to-eye staring at each other for moments that seemed like eternity. Countless times his fur would wind up soaked with my tears on exceptionally bad days as he listened to my worries. That fur... I will miss the smell of his fur. A combination of stuffed animal and warmth and home. There is really no other way to describe it...

I will miss him racing from another room to try and climb in the fridge to nibble on six-pack rings on the bottom shelf...

I will miss finding him sitting in the window staring at birds...

I will miss him growling at the garbage trucks as if defending me while I napped...

I will miss him reprimanding Sparky for me with hisses and swats when he was a bad dog...

I will miss him waking me up every night sitting on my chest purring and nudging my face for some love...

I will miss him stretched out on my legs as the only male to watch romantic comedies time and time again without a single complaint...

I will miss him army crawling up my stomach to my chest to weasel his head under the bottom of my book and nudge it out of the way...

All this to say... I will miss every little thing about my fur boy.

Some people may think he was just a cat but I'm lucky to say he was one of my soulmates.

Until we meet again my sweet boy, I love you Oscar Fox.