You Left Me. It Was Forever!

I have this tabbycat that I adore, and his name is Dexter.

He was born in early April 2008, in a box lined with blankets in a house in Harrisburg, PA, while my sister hovered nervously nearby. Three tabby boys with white paws came into the world on that day: the Itty Bitty City Kitty Gang, as we liked to call them. My sister gave me first choice of those little white-pawed tabbies: he is the one I picked.

To be completely honest, he is the "next cat" that my sister had to talk me into. There was a cat before him: Gremlin, a big orange tabby tom that I loved with all my heart, that I lost in the summer of 2004. Four years later, I was still grieving. Afraid to get another cat. Afraid I would never be able to love it wholeheartedly, the way that I had loved Gremlin. Perhaps even more afraid that I might. *sigh*

Dexter has made his home with me (now "us") for five years now, and he is quite a companion. Wherever I am, he wants to be nearby. When I sit in my special chair in the living room at night, he lies in a cat bed lined with blankets at my feet. We have rituals. We are happy together. Every day, he brings me joy.

It's hard to leave him behind when I leave the house. On this particular morning, I had gone out into the yard with my camera for five minutes to take pictures of the flowers - columbine, iris - blooming their fool heads off in the morning sun.

When I came back inside, this was the face that greeted me. He'd been waiting at the top of the front steps for me. And by the look on his face, you'd have thought I'd been gone for HOURS instead of minutes. (On the plus side, I truly know that I am missed when I'm gone!)

I have posted many photos of Dexter on blip, but I think this may be the first one in black and white. Which was an accident, of course: the last thing I'd been doing outside was photographing the Aquilegia (columbine) in monochrome because I wanted to capture the shapes in the contrasty morning light. (And I did get some rather good shots, but alas you will see none of them, because once again the tabby won the blip!)

The soundtrack to accompany this poor bereft tabby face: KC and the Sunshine Band, Please Don't Go.