Rest In Peace, Spicey Cat

I found out a few days ago that the last of my childhood pets, a cat named Spice, has died.

Spice, the Fatcat, and Yoda, the Mopcat at our home in Denver

Those of you who were privilaged enough to meet her will know what a loss this is for cat-kind. Despite her obesity and abnormally short legs (which gave her the look of an adorably fuzzy cement truck) she was one of the most bad-ass cats on the planet, loving to all humans and feared by all dogs. Every morning she would go on a walk around the block with my mom and our dog, Cheyenne.

My parents moved from our home in Denver to a more rural/suburban house in Broomfield, Colorado a few years ago. Spice loved the new place, and somehow managed to hunt about a half dozen baby bunnies so far this spring. Our theory is that she pretended to be a lawn ornament to lure them into a false sense of security (she does look abnormally like one of those really round cement frogs people have in their gardens) and then she’d pounce.

Life in the suburbs was not always idyllic for Spice, though. She almost got my parents into a lot of trouble last year. My mother explains:

We had one of our first inklings last night that we may not be suited for the suburbs. We listened to a telephone message we had received from a neighbor down the street upon returning from dinner. Apparently he was very upset – he said our cat attacked him and his dog when they were walking by our house. (He has a two-year-old 50-pound Wheaten terrier – our cat is fat, slow, and 13 years old). We at first thought it was a joke – he didn’t appreciate our chuckling over the matter. I guess we’ll have to sit Spice down for a good long talk…

In the end, despite her ferocity, we think a Coyote was just a little more wily than our beloved Fatcat. Rest in Peace, Spice, you were an awesome cat and will truly be missed.

My dad was modeling the chain mail I made for HL art in highschool and Spice decided to get in on the photo opportunity