He stood apart from the rest.
The others sought my attention in the best ways they knew how, but not Norman. He didn’t try to impress me. He was aloof. I liked that.
It was late 1992 or early 1993, soon after Simone was born. We lived in Queens and weren’t supposed to have pets in our apartment in Lefrak City. My wife loved cats and she had always had them in her life, but I was never a big pet guy.
Sure, I could see why people were attracted to the furry creatures, but other than hamsters and a few turtles, we never had many pets when I was growing up. When my wife and I got together, she left the pets with Mom because she knew that I didn’t want to live with cats.
While running an errand, I walked by the local pet shop. Pausing, I thought of my postpartum wife who had begun to drop hints about getting a cat. I entered the pet shop, not really knowing what I was going to do. There were several cats housed there. Most seemed to sense that putting on a good show for a passerby may well land them a cozy gig away from the noisy commotion of the pet shop.
I’ve never been attracted to clingy people and I suppose that I have the same aversion to clingy pets. The fact that this cat was ambivalent to the whole strut your stuff, pick me, pick me process sealed the deal.
I came up with Norman as a name because he reminded me of Norman Bates – not the knife wielding maniacal Bates, but the reserved, disconnected, pre-murderous rage personality that the Psycho character exhibited in the first part of the movie.
We have coexisted for 18 years and have only rarely strayed from our original silent agreement – no over-the-top, oh, what a cute kitty gushiness allowed.
Norman died last night. His age had started to show lately, so we knew that the end was near. Still… it’s sad.
It was nice having you around, Norman. Farewell.
Author Bio:
Ray Colon has written 136 posts on Ray's Blog.
He works with numbers for a living, but don't judge - boring accountants need love too. His blog has no niche (unless writing about things that are important to him is a niche). Some folks cringe when he gets “all political” on them, but he does it anyway when he's in that kind of mood. Sometimes, he writes something nice about someone, but you shouldn't get used to that. His first book, the one he hasn't written yet, is not available on Amazon. Subscribe to Ray's Blog via RSS or Email.
