Mezzo's absence is entering it's fifth day. Since there was never any evidence or eye witness it's difficult to grasp that he's really gone. I obsessively scan the hillsides hoping to catch a glimpse of him coming toward me across the meadow, like a widow whose lost her man at sea!
Mezzo had a short life. We think he was about a year old when he first arrived at our house in Venice four years ago. We came home from somewhere to find this stray cat sleeping on the bed. It turned out that he knew how to use the cat door so there was no way to keep him out. He was dirty and smelly but was definitely tame.
We reluctantly began to accept him while working to find his original owner. After posting many signs with no response we finally took him to the vet. There we found out that he had been micro-chipped at the Berkely-East Bay Humane Society but never registered. It was anyone's guess how he ended up a stray cat in Venice.
We continued to try to find a home for him since we already had two cats plus another two or three strays that we were feeding. No luck.
Eventually he became part of the family. He was tightly bonded to me, my shadow. He slept with me, followed me everywhere and would let out a mournful cry if he became separated from me. We think he was part Siamese which gave him a little bit of a mean streak but beautiful aqua blue eyes. He had a big personality with lots of curiosity.
We dreaded his move to Topanga because of the known dangers to pets from coyotes. But we thought if we only let him out while supervised, he'd be OK. But of course as time went by and nothing happened we got a little sloppy with our supervision. He made it less than a year and a half up here.
He took up a lot of space in our hearts so the void he now leaves seems huge. I keep wondering how he could have used up all his nine lives in just five short years.
Gone but definitely not forgotten.
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