Sometime late in 2006, I was attempting to go to someone's house for an appointment, but they weren't answering their door. As I stood in their driveway, attempting to reach them, I was prrrrr-rowred insistently. A young kitten was sprinting towards me, making inquiring noises.
Well yes, I wanted to pick her up. Oh yes, I wanted to hold her and keep her safe from harm!!
She purred loudly, never wiggling or squirming as I walked up and down the street, knocking on doors, asking if anyone owned or knew who owned this kitten.
No one knew that kitten and had never seen the dirty little thing before. She had a small kink in her tail, as if it was run over or stuck in a door or fence, but it didn't seem to bother her. Nothing bothered her. Cars drove by, but she never even startled at the noises. I abandoned my attempt to get to my appointment and hopped back in the car, kitten in my arms, and she continued to purr all the way to the vet (no microchip) and then home.
At the time, I was already living in fear with 6 cats in a 2 pet limit apartment. So I put up flyers in the neighborhood and set up a safe place for her in my garage. But I spent lots of time with her there and she was always THRILLED to see me.
She tolerated a bath very well, but was so clingy and sad when it was time for me to leave her, alone, abandoned, bereft of all affection in the garage.
So I took down the signs (almost up for 3 full days... I tried!) and named her Chiyo-Chan, and brought her in to meet the family.
Chiyo never showed an ounce of fear or discomfort. She quite simply told me it was about time-she obviously knew from the moment she spotted me on the street that she was my kitten.
From day one, Chiyo did things her own way. We always found her in the most interesting positions!
Chiyo didn't limit this position to furniture either.
Chiyo's complete disregard of personal space was somewhat tolerated when she was a kitten, but became problematic for her feline family when she became an adult cat. For most of her life, her cat to cat cuddle attempts would end up with a yowling cat standoff. Eventually, she decided that, for the most part, furry friends were not worth the time.
Kittens, however, were more accepting of her aggressive love. She was particularly fond of Tomo, who got sick early on and never grew past her kitten size or kitten ways, and kitten Kisa (adult Kisa and Chiyo were not great friends, sadly).
But Chiyo's friendly nature never changed around people. As long as she was getting attention, she was happy. If you touched her, she was in sheer bliss. But she'd engage into immediate purrs if you simply said "Hi Chiyo" or even looked at her affectionately. And she loved every person that walked into her house.
My poor husband, the DM, was always re-explaining things due to cat-induced attention deficit.
I currently can't find any pictures- it was before I got google photos and started attempting to organize pictures, but in the Summer/early Fall of 2016 my parents lived with us while between houses. Chiyo Chan LOVED my dad, who cursed at her constantly because she was ALWAYS sitting directly in front of his face, nose to nose, nuzzling into his face and beard. He grumbled and complained, but he also learned her actual name and would pet her and give her all sorts of treats.
When I first got her we lived in a 2 story apartment. Chiyo Chan LOVED those stairs. We also went through several tunnels and cubes, which became known as the "CUBES OF DEATH". When you combined the stairs and a cube of death, or any pop-up contraption, like a mesh pop up laundry basket, Chiyo was in heaven. OH how I wish I had a smart phone back then!! Chiyo would wait patiently at the top of the steps... sometimes in her weird splayed back position. If you threw a pop-up cube down the stairs, she'd sprint after it, desperately trying to dart inside it while it rolled down the stairs. If she managed to get inside, she'd roll down the stairs with it... then yowl at the bottom until you ran down, grabbed the pop up, and go back to the top to do it all over again. I very much regret never getting this on video!
The cubes, however, quickly became known as danger traps. Unlike the mesh laundry basket that she claimed, then destroyed, if approached at the wrong angle, could look innocently empty. Chiyo loved it when you believed them to be Chiyo-free, and walked by with your tender ankles and calves unaware of their mortal peril. Flying attack Chiyo was sad when everyone would give her death cubes a wide berth, and she showed this by peeing on all of them. For most of her adult life, she lived cube-less, because she'd always pee on them. She'd pee on any fabric type thing laying on the floor, which is one reason my current house is all tile!
I discovered early on that Chiyo had a special love for carbs. One day I splurged and bought a pack of potato bread hamburger buns instead of the regular 97c packs. Chiyo snagged it off the counter and took off, dragging the entire pack up the stairs and attempting to crawl under the bed with it, gnawing through the plastic and eating a quarter of two buns before I got it away from her. She loved carbs her entire life. Bread could no longer be kept on the counter. Clam shell to-go boxes were too flimsy to resist her determined carb loving self. Any pastry item had to be stored in tupperware or the microwave. When making the husband sandwiches for his lunches, I had to set up defensive barriers and keep a spray bottle handy- she'd march past the ham or tuna and go straight for the bread. She taught others to have the same eating habits, but she was our original Carb Cat.
Chiyo's tolerant nature made it easy to dress her up. If you were touching her, she didn't mind if you were putting her in a hat or outfit. She was happy to be held.
She even tolerated our attempts to discover if she was, in fact, a Flerken. Maybe some of you listening with the volume on think she sounds mad, but Chiyo had one main vocalization- a yowl. She used it when she was blissfully happy and when she was extremely pissed. She ALWAYS sounded mad. The only way you could tell how she really felt was the accompanying behavior. Purring, like in this video, and relaxed... that's happy Chiyo cry. If the same sound was accompanied by teeth- she was mad Chiyo. We rarely saw mad Chiyo, but the other cats met her quite frequently, especially as she aged.
The mighty huntress Chiyo also loved to bring us her kills.
If we didn't notice her right away, she would give us her other vocalization- the LOOKITWHATIBROUGHTFORYOUHUMAN announcement. She'd rarely use this noise if she knew we were in the same room... it really was a summons. (Yes, I see the mess all over the counter... this was early Covid in my despair phase)
Chiyo Chan wanted nothing but your undying love and attention. She'd often greet us at the door, demanding it. In her teenage and early adult years, she was a very chonky girl. As a senior cat, she slimmed down quite a bit, though she continued to eat as if we starved her constantly.
Until June 2020, when she stopped eating. A few emergency vet trips, made challenging with COVID, and we discovered thyroid and liver issues. Some treatment (anti-nausea meds and an appetite stimulant) put some life back in her and she regained her full appetite.
Until 2021, which has not started off well. My mom was in an accident, and shortly after that, Chiyo started acting a little more distant and not eating as much. I thought she was a little mad with all the time I spent with my parents, but her fur started getting more of that old cat oily feel, instead of her vibrant sheen. She was a little picky about food for a few days, which was highly unusual. Usually, Chiyo ate like a scavenger- downing cat food, cat treats, dog food, human food left unguarded... anything. Then she stopped eating completely. Back to the emergency vet, but this time, the test results all came back roughly within normal limits. We completed several types of examinations over the next week and a half, including putting her back on the June 2020 treatment. At first, we thought it was working. For a day, she finally ate a teaspoon of food when presented, several times throughout the day. My mom, because she's awesome like that, agreed to keep her during the day and offer food while we were working- so she was being offered food at regular intervals. But the tiny appetite disappeared again and she quickly became nothing but bones, lost all her energy, started losing control of her bladder... All her life she was 8-12lbs, but she dropped to barely 5lbs. During her latest vet visit, the vet said if the treatment didn't work, we could try additional "shot in the dark" procedures to try to find a cause- but they really didn't have any idea where to look/what to look for since her bloodwork was all fairly normal and the xrays and ultrasounds and everything else we did gave us no clues. They also suggested we might try hospitalization and a feeding tube. In the days we fretted while monitoring if the treatment was working or not, Seth and I decided that we'd agree to a feeding tube for a maximum of 24 hours- because if she was not going to make it, we wanted her to pass surrounded by love and not in a hospital where we could not visit her due to COVID restrictions, alone- which was always Chiyo's idea of a nightmare.
Saturday night, 1/16/21, Chiyo was pretty much non-responsive. Laying quietly, completely still, not immediately responding to us calling her name or our gentle pets. We called the vet again and discussed tube feeding, but they then said to tubefeed, we'd have to put her under anesthesia. After listening to our description of her current state and our concerns about her passing in the hospital without either of us present, they gently warned us of the dangers of the anesthesia- and said, without really saying the words, that it was very risky for a cat in her state. We felt that it was unlikely she'd come out of the hospital and made the decision to let her go with grace.
In the car, waiting for them to be ready to let us in, we admitted to Chiyo that we suspected she'd been telling us for a week she was ready, and we were so sorry we let her suffer so long. Her bounce back in June had given us the hope she could do it again, but we were grateful for the extra 7 months we had with her. Chiyo woke up enough to tell us she loved us very much and she had zero regrets in her Chiyo life.
Instead of feeling abandoned and lost, Chiyo went with love, praying that WE would be ok without her.
Chiyo told us she was happy. Happy to be loved, happy to be held. She had decided where she wanted to live her life and chose where she wanted to end it- in daddy's arms, with mommy in her face. We hadn't really heard her voice in days... the few times she did talk she had become so weak. But in these final moments, she found her voice strong enough to tell us, one more time, it was OK- she was ready.
She even had energy to take this short video to send to her grandma's wifi photo frame.
Then she laid her head back down, all energy gone once again and told us it was time. So we listened, finally, to what she'd been trying to tell us for days. We kissed her, and pet her, and ended her discomfort with all the love we had to share.
Her heart may have stopped, but her love lives on in the hearts of the many lives she touched in her loud, affectionate, demanding Chiyo ways. Be at peace, Chiyo Chan.
Update 1/31/21
I'm touched with the outpouring of love and kind words from people who read Chiyo's blog. It seemed to reach more people than my usual blog readers, which is mostly my mom, lol.
A few nights later, I had a surprise porch delivery of these delicious protein donuts from my friend Ashley. Hubby and I had a moment together as we realized we wouldn't have to hide these donuts in the microwave, but mostly it we were greatly moved by the lovely gesture. Ashley got to meet Miss Chiyo on several occasions and knew first hand what a carb hound she was. Sadness touched our lives, but so much kindness and love surrounds us on a daily basis with our friends and family... we are so blessed.
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