When your sweet kitty leaves a hole in your heart, it’s a real treasure to revive some memories. Hidden deep in a pile of half-finished stories was this fun account from our sweet Dot. May it bring you a smile:)

You won’t believe what I saw this morning as my mom was giving me a spa treatment with the brush. She does this a lot—she says it helps keep all my gorgeous locks out of the bilge, whatever that is. Anyway, I was lying on my back, relishing in the sun, when suddenly I saw this thing hop across the water. It looked like one of those fish my dad has in his big tank at home but then it was flying like a bird. It was crazy. It just hopped along the water and almost landed on me in the boat. I quickly jumped up from the massage table and got down low in my stealth mode, quietly waiting for this thing to reappear. A thousand thoughts are flying through my mind. I decide that I don’t care about all that water. If that thing jumped again I was going to tackle it, kill it, and bring it to my dad in bed. I love to bring him gifts in bed. Sadly, that flying thing never came back but I’m gonna watch for it.

So you’re probably wondering how I’m doing and wondering how long I stayed in the closet. I know a lot of you thought I would fail at this boat thing, but I’m a survivor. Don’t you remember before I became a princess I lived outside and hunted my own food? Mom says I was called a feral. I think that’s some kind of mythical goddess because I pretty much rocked that life.

Anyway, I’m rocking this life too. I just stayed in my dad’s closet to complete all my studies. I needed to learn why the floor always moves. How does the water in my bowl fall out of my bowl when I’m drinking? I needed to learn what all those boat noises meant. They were scary at first but frankly they’re no worse than the guy at home who scares me death when he blows all the leaves from my favorite hiding spots. Speaking of leaves, where did they go?

Anyway at first, nighttime was my very favorite. I remember as a youth when I lived outside, nighttime was the safest time to hunt and play. It was dark and quiet and all the scary people and their scary dogs go away. I could sneak out of my hiding places and go explore. So, I figured that was true here too. I know I’m supposed to stay inside the ropes mom calls lifelines and never ever jump off the boat. Most of the time I’m okay with that. Look, I admit I like to drink water out of the sink and it doesn’t bother me when my paws get a little wet. And when it rains, I kind of dig how it feels when it cleans my beautiful pelt. But otherwise, I do not like water. I don’t like puddles or bathtubs or sprinklers or hoses. And I definitely do not like all this water around me. So not to worry, I’m staying on the boat.

However. Sometimes the boat is on a long leash and water’s actually not everywhere. When nobody is looking, I sneak around the outside of the boat and I can see dirt and trees and GRASS! Oh man I miss grass. I want to eat grass. I want to eat so much grass that I throw up all over the place. I can probably get over to that grass if I just do a little jump. Well maybe not, there’s kind of gap between me and that grass and it’s filled with a bunch of water. I could fall and I’d get wet and my mom would be mad because she told me never ever to jump off the boat. Hmmm, what to do? And just as I’m weighing the pros and cons of this idea, I see something run across the grass. There it goes again. Wait, there’s one…two…three…oh man, there’s a whole bunch of them. They’re CATS! I hate cats. I mean I know I’m a cat, but I hate other cats. They’re almost as bad as dogs. They steal my food and pee in my box, and they’re just mean. They like to scratch and bite and they ruin my hair. Maybe this is why mom tells me to never ever jump off the boat. But dang, why do they get all the grass?

So I don’t leave the boat unless my parents take me to my old home in California. I’m a good cat. Yes you were Dot…you were the best and we miss you:)