Bentley, Bearcat and Patti arrived at my house in the belly of their mother when I lived in Boulder Creek, CA in 1987.
Of the three kittens and mother cat who joined me shortly after I moved to our all-redwood house in the redwoods of California in 1987, only Bearcat was still alive when I moved to Mexico in 2001. Sadly, he drowned in my pool a few months later. I was devastated. This was his epitaph, written as a string of kennings for a NaPoWriMo prompt in 2014.
Bearcat
1987-2002
R.I.P.
back lofter
tail wafter
gray bearer
drape tearer
ball loser
lap chooser
bunny slayer
shoelace player
sofa climber
sleep mimer
shadow springer
dragonfly bringer
lizard de-tailer
spider nailer
basement searcher
window ledge percher
tree dweller
mouse smeller
dog chaser
bug caser
door crack peeper
sunbeam sleeper
woods walker
squirrel stalker
rail balancer
prey glancer
shadow catcher
love hatcher
body spinner
heart winner
for dVerse poet’s word-play prompt: Kenning
To read other word-play poems from those answering the same prompt, go HERE.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Such a heartfelt epitaph.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I felt such guilt as well as remorse. The pool had a defect that we hadn’t found the answer to. It had drained down to a half of its height and he fell in and couldn’t get out and drowned during the night. Horrible horrible.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It must’ve been heartbreaking.
LikeLike
Wonderful summary. Shadow springer really made me smile
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once we start to write kennings for cats, the list really is endless. Lovely epitaph.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is lovely. They do win our hearts.❤️
LikeLike
They do. After this I had stairs built out of the pool to replace the ladder.
LikeLike
I’m sorry about Bearcat.😞 That had to be sad. My oldest cat, Sheldon, passed away at home. He just wasted away. It broke my heart.
LikeLike
I know. Hard to say which is worse…fast or slow.
LikeLike
Good cats do all these things — what a great epitaph!
LikeLike
You may not have covered it all, but you came very close~! I loved the post, the thought, and all the animals that bring me so much more joy than they every do problems.
Last night after I had gone to bed Tami kept getting a stuffed animal out of her toy box, jump on the bed and run away with it trying to get me to chase her. She would run into the kitchen around the center island there and back…
Later she would have another toy and do the same thing again. Until I gave up and chased her, into the kitchen and around the island where I keep their water and food.. YES she was trying to tell me something~! Her big, five gallon water jug was not only empty, it was dry~! Somehow I had missed THAT.
If they could only talk, but I have one that actually thinks deeply and comes up with the answer. I love her to death, and get a laugh out or her antics and her show that she can figure out how to talk to me, even if I am sometimes not wise enough to know what she is trying to say.
LikeLike
That is really amazing, Sam. What a smart little girl and you are a good dad to give in and play along.
LikeLike
They constantly amaze me with their instincts and intelligence. It is really us humans that have LOST so many things through evolution. They can smell things we can’t smell, and see things we can’t see, hear things we can’t hear, they know what is right or wrong things to eat, and they do THINK, even if they have difficulty expressing things to us ignorant people.
Just about an hour ago, my friend down the road called and said that he would be coming over in half an hour. Nothing more was said, but about the time he would have been getting into his car, Tami started running to the front door and barking. (she is crazy about him), Sure enough in about five minutes he drove up.. HOW DOES SHE KNOW WHEN SOMEONE IS COMING~?
I had a dog in the past, who knew when Shirley would be getting into her car to come home from work, not always the same time each day~! He would go sit on the front porch to wait for her, about the time she would be due to arrive,
So this brings a subject to mind that really bothers me. I sit in a doctors waiting room or dealership repair and while waiting everyone in the room has a damn I-phone, clicking, talking or taking pictures on it, I usually have one of Kahlil Gibran’s little books to read, and Tami is usually sitting under my chair, but sometimes “squeaking”, if there is a kid in the room that looks like they want to pet her, another of her favorite things, but she will not move until I tell her that it is OK~! Truly a well trained service dog who loves me enough to learn what makes ME happy.
Another thing that bothers me is how we depend on computers for almost everything we do. Now they talk about “Artificial intelligence” or (AI) and how we soon will just sit in our car and tell it where we want to go. The car will do the rest~!
Sorry but this really bothers me~! When I follow a person who never used a standard shift or turn signals and other simple things in a car; now we see them drive with one foot on the accelerator and the other foot on the brakes, driving me crazy with their stop lights blinking on and off and not using turn signals until the are in the middle of a turn, after slamming on their brakes almost causing an accident. What is going to happen when they turn it all over to a tiny computer under the dash~?
In fact there is a new word used in publication that comes near to explaining it all to us. It is called “Retcon”, (look it up). Maybe this is what history has in store for us, where we will be able to go back and pick up, what we did not know, in the first place~! Like the Saturday matinee, where they tell you about the past weeks episode~!
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/retcon-history-and-meaning
I Know that through evolution we have lost so very much, and will loose much more due to computers, while at the same time gaining through their use. I know and remember more about history than my grand sons know and they are still in school, yet when they visit, instead of hearing what I may say about family and past or current experience, they are sitting, in the same room, playing games on a cell phone. Now they may excel in “computer games”, but are missing the history and current events that has been handed down orally in families for eons.
So I have written several poems on this subject but here is one that says the most to me:
https://mcouvillion.wordpress.com/2019/12/04/evilution/
JUST MORE FROM SAM
LikeLike
This is a sweet tribute to your cat. Yes to a heart winner.
LikeLike
xo
LikeLike