Gabriel April 2003-July 2009 "He left his mark on me"

I look down at my thigh and I see the scar from the recent puncture wounds inflicted by a cat who got freaked by the dog and girl while sitting on my lap. It seems strange to see the scar and cat is gone.

Gabriel. We adopted him before the girl was born from the Hayward CA animal shelter. They have these little rooms you can take the prospective pet into and spend time with it, get to know it, before you take it home. David and Nick picked him out, and then brought me in to meet him. He was a little timid, but warmed up quickly. He had short hair----he was lying!. He appealed to Dave and my boy. I wanted the orange Manx instead. 2 against one....I lost.

So, we did the paper work and took him home. I discovered he had a fondness for mac and cheese, and he had earmites. When we took him back to be fixed, the doc fixed the earmites as well. I surmised he had been born and raised thus far, outside. With us, he was to be an inside kitty. I declined the feline luekemia vaccine because if he was going to get it, he had already contracted it before he came to us.

Nick named him as we were picking out the name of the baby. Baby was to be a girl, so I asked Nick what his favorite boy name was, and he decided on "Gabriel". He grew rather quickly in body, but he stayed a baby in his mind for a very long time. Truthfully, I think he was a bit slow for a cat. I would say that he was too stupid to go outside, he wouldn't last long. Dave called him "Zorro!" because of his black mask. I would say that he wasn't bright enough to be Zorro! and we laughed. Gabriel would forget to swallow when he was petted. Then he would drool. EEwww! He must have been weaned too early. He was my baby before the girl was born. When she arrived, he did his best to reclaim his spot on my chest. I would be holding the baby and him, and before I knew it, he inched the baby to the outside and landed his rightful place in the middle of my person. Before too long, he gave up, and Dave became "his person".

He moved to Minnesota with us, along with his brother Dino. Dino was allowed outside, and met his demise on the farm. I am very glad that I never let Gabriel out. Grandma was not too fond of house cats, but she did seem to enjoy him a bit. I taught him to kiss my chin, and Grandma did not find that trait as endearing as I did. Then he made the move to Oregon with us and claimed Tigerlily for a sister. She did not like him for a very long time. After about a year, you could hear the 2 of them running through the house like a little herd of elephants. After we bought our house in the country, we adopted Roy, our yellow lab. Gabriel and Roy had a few different games they played. Mornings always found Roy on the couch, and Gabriel on the window sill next to him.

Recently, I picked the cat up and discovered he had lost a lot of weight. At his most, Gabriel was 15 lbs. I knew he probably had leukemia, based on his past, and his condition. This is not the first cat I've put down with the disease. Dave and I talked, and we agreed that when he seemed too sick to enjoy life, we would put him down. There was no more game playing with Roy. Desi was not allowed to pick him up. The day came....and we had a Marley-esk burial, and started our own pet cemetery. Desirae knows that "Gabriel died". Tonight she wanted to see him when we were down at the tree, and I inspected the grave. Pets are good for children. They provide an understanding about death in a kinder and gentler way. I explained that Gabriel's spirit left his body. I think she almost gets it.

Throughout my life I've had many cats, and other pets that "have left their mark" on me. There was Shep, my first dog who left a huge scar on my heart. The little black kitten that earned me the nickname "Boo-Hoo Brenda Brown" when she was hit by a car. There was Prince, the first cat I put down. James, who literally left his mark on both Nick and I, both of us have a scar on our thigh. There's the scar on my wrist from Athena. And I imagine these puncture marks from Gabriel will fade in time. I almost wish they wouldn't.