From the Book: Introduction to Merly

This is an edited, past tense excerpt from the chapter of the book where I introduced Merly.

Whereas our cat Red is light and nearly flies when she walks, Merly was the opposite, obese and waddling, with short gray hair. Merly originally and unfortunately was named Booger, a kitten acquired by a woman who soon discovered she was pregnant, so my sister-in-law volunteered to find Booger a home. Booger was in bad shape, sickly and afflicted with fleas, worms, mites and runny eyes. Everyone who offered to adopt Booger promptly rejected her when they saw her. So my husband took her.

Bobby’s sister had renamed her Merlin from the King Arthur stories for reasons no one knows, yet spelled it Merly and pronounced it “Mer-lynn,” the emphasis on the second syllable. Bobby acquired Merly around the same time as Red, so they became playmates and groomed each other until their kittenhood wore off. After that, they paid no attention to each other.

We called her “Mer-lee.” She needed a lot of attention to survive and she got it and remained devoted to my husband. She was briefly a normal sized cat until she was fixed (and discovered to be pregnant during the operation, as was Red.) She not only didn’t lose her baby weight after losing the babies, she gained weight until her legs nearly disappeared. She ate any brand or flavor of cat food, which may be why she was so fat, but with six others competing for food, I don't know how she maintained her size over the years.

She liked going outside, but it didn't take much to make her frantically want to come back inside where she was perfectly happy to sit in view of the food bowls or look out the window. We figured she knew she couldn't move very fast, so she stayed aware of anything that might possibly require a fast get-away and got away before it had to be done fast. She reminded me of a possum.

When we lived in the rental house, she slept on top of our bed's bookcase headboard because there was a window there that looked out over the woods. When we moved to the house we bought, she slept under the bed. She was very needy sometimes. She wanted to be in the bathroom if you were, in front of the computer if you were working on it, next to the sofa if you were watching TV. She followed us around, asking the same insistent question which we didn't understand. I think she just wanted us to stop walking and sit down. She was especially insistent about this when I got out of the shower. She desperately needed to sit on my chest when I was warm, damp and smelled like soap.

The last couple of years, she stopped doing most of that except still maintained a vigil on the dining room table so she'd be first to inspect the food bowls when they were refilled. If she wasn't hungry, she had a favorite window. And whenever I spread the bills out on the breakfast bar and brought out the checkbook, she wanted to sit on the bills and rub her face against my pen. That was very annoying because until she tired of that game, I couldn't get anything done.

The last favorite thing she did was roll. When she was outside, she'd roll on the warm cement and wiggle.