Ode to Simone, Simone, the Little Love Bone

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the death of dear, far from sweet, Simone, so I figured she deserved a memorial beyond the scars she left on people and fellow cats and furniture. Named after Simone Simon, star of the original Cat People, Simone was as feisty as she was beautiful, so she could lure you in and then go for the kill, the truest of feline femme fatales. I adopted her way back in Iowa, then she made the move to Pennsylvania, then the move to Santa Barbara, and along the way she's probably the only non-lost-soon-to-be-coyote-chow domestic cat to see the Grand Canyon. (It was too hot to leave her in the Ryder truck cab, so she came with us in her cat carrier and we heard the words "weird guys with a cat!" in many languages.)

She was always difficult but she was always my cat and she survived being hit by a car, hyper-thyroidism and radioactive treatment for that, and at the end failing kidneys and the need for being stuck with a big needle (really more of a spike) and getting "irrigated" to keep her fluid levels ok for her last few months.

It's incredibly fitting her last gift to me was to push me past my squeamishness like that, for I had to stab her with that needle/spike, and I'm a total medical wuss. While she was a horror at the vet (one even insisted her clawing left part of his forearm numb for 6 months), she let us jab her every other night with that intravenous contraption. Thanks, Simone, for all your lessons, and may there be endless mice in your kitty heaven. Just don't leave all the skulls on the driveway.