As many of you have now heard, we lost K2 two days ago. I am more devastated than I can possibly explain. He was our baby. The kitten we adopted right after we bought our house. He was Jer's little shadow. Our little hunter. And our never ending source of amusement, love, and, on occasion, eye-rolling exasperation. For everyone who met him understood what an amazing personality he was. He was in a word, unique.
When Jeremy and I went to the local Humane Society two years ago to adopt a new kitten, he wasn't even on the top 3 list of the cats we were considering. But after getting there and meeting him, he was just so laid back. We thought, "perfect." The perfect lounge lizard. He would flop in your arms as you were holding him. So we brought our little ball of fluff home. Within a couple days we realized how completely we were duped. See, our little ball of fluff was only low key due to a kennel cold. He was suffering a case of the kitten sniffles. Within a week, our fluff ball turned into a complete bundle of endless energy.
There were times in that first year when Jer and I questioned if we would survive it. I've never had a cat (kitten or elsewise) that required so much time and attention. Right about the time we'd be heading for bed, K2 would be ramping up for his evening to hunt. Within two hours we'd be sleeping with a bedfull of toys--his kills. And he'd be pounching on any moving body part under the blankets. Jer started to have serious consideration as to whether we had made a mistake. I believe he mentioned, "nice fur" and "loincloth" several times. But we persevered. Jer started to spent up to 4 hours a night before bed playing with the kitten to tire him out enough for us to get some sleep. We discovered K2's love of hair ties. His capability to leap the couch. He preditection to carry his stuffed buffalo by the jugular. And his absolute need to sleep wrapped around my throat with his face stuffed in my neck. If we tried to lock him out the bedroom--which was vital while Fionn was recovering from her surgery--but he would sit outside our bedroom door and cry for hours. I took to sleeping two hours in bed with Jer and Fi, then sleeping in our guestroom with K2 so he could sleep with his mamma. He inserted his furry little self into every aspect of our lives.
And over time, he eventually did "mellow". He eventually needed to sleep. And his requirements for playtime came down to only a couple hours a day. Even though, two years later, Jer would still have to spend the first hour arriving home from work wrestling with or playing fetch/frisbee mouse with K2. Jer was without a doubt, his "human". Korat's are known for bonding with one person above all others, and Jeremy was definately his. He would follow Jer around the house like a shadow. And he was more than happy to spend his evenings laying on the arm of the couch, just licking Jer's hand to bathe his favorite human. He would occasionally take a lick on my arm, and would only end up with a disgruntled look on his face as if the taste of my skin offended him.
According to our research on Korats (which is the breed of cat K2 was), he had two modes--insane activity or velcro. When he was bored, he would come up, put his paws up on your leg,
and let out the wail of "PLAY WITH ME!". And this would continue until you got up and found a toy and engaged in full playtime with him. His last, favorite toy was a black string that used to be a drawstring from a pair of Jer's short. K2 carried that string everywhere. And would just drop it at your feet and meow to request a start to playtime. And if you've never seen a cat play fetch for hours, or play cat frisbee, then you've never seen K2 in action. A hair tie never lasted long on a table in our house. The minute I'd take my ponytails down, I'd need only look across the room to see K2 riveted to what was in my hand. And he would literally leap the entire couch in his pursuit of chasing them. And his acrobatics were legendary. He would wait on the edge of the couch for you to toss his toy. Full backflips with a half twist were common. As were full back flips head first into our coffee table. The cat was single minded in his focus to hunt. We even wrapped one of the floor to ceiling beams in our house in an old climbing rope to keep K2 happy to climb inside.
But K2 became my kitty when it came to sleeptime. Ever since he was a kitten, he loved to sleep
on me. I'm sure it was more due to my ability to sleep absolutely still in uncomfortable positions. And K2's favorite request was the "scoop". He would come up to me in the middle of the night, put his front two paws on my chest, nudge my face with his nose and request "the scoop". I would put my arm out and curved down toward my hip, and the cat would basically Nestle plunge backwards to plop into it. Then place his head on my shoulder and go to sleep. He was my little cuddly, spoon. And absolutely had to have human contact while sleeping. He loved being wrapped up as the inner spoon and completely sheltered. Just like he would have in a pack of kittens.I've never seen the like. And needless to say, am having a hard time sleeping without him now.
And among my favorite K2 moments:
--His habit of pawing at my nightstand books looking for a hidden hair tie. I used to purposely stash one there—if it only one of his—to give him a mouse to find and bring to bed with us.
--The way he would attack Jer’s feet if Jer went to start playing Wii. The immediate grab for the ankles and achille’s tendon to signify he wanted Jer to play with him instead.
--The way he and Jer would wrestle. Jer would sit on the living room floor, hold his hand above K2’s head, and you would see K2 get all set back into the pounce position, the launch. When he was smaller, Jer would be able to catch him in mid air.
--The fur belt on Jer. The weekend mornings when Jer would just sit and drink coffee on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. K2 would just come up, plop down on his lap (regardless of whether the computer was there or not), and just crash. Usually preceeded by several minutes of bathing himself, but he loved to sleep on Jer’s lap. Especially if Jer was wearing the grey flannel sweatpants. I’m convinced he thought they had the same fur that way.
--The little hunter. He loved to hunt. Toys, mice, Fi, bugs. I’ve never seen a cat kill a fly so fast. He would leap nearly six feet in the air, swat the bug on a wall like a hammer, then eat up. He was good that way. No leaving dead bugs around. The funniest ones were to watch him chase moths. Lamps, tables, and vases were no obstacle to his chase.
--His feather on a stick acrobatics. You could get him to run in a circle so fast, or leap into full back flips with a twist chasing that thing. Course, it was one of the less comfy toys he would drag to bed with us.
--His stupid cat trick moments chasing his own tail. The best part of it though was that he could keep himself amused for long periods of time doing it. No human intervention required.
--His long body with longer hind legs. Gave him this great leaping power, like a puma. But could also give him the funniest ways of sitting either half hunched over, or with his front legs off to the side. Never looked comfy, but he never seemed to mind.
--His way of leaping at his cat condo. Especially if it was during his zero to crazy cat fly by’s. If he was in full play, he would leap at the top of that cat condo so hard that it would crash into the window and teeter before stabilizing. He would just sit there unfazed.
--His absolute need to shove every hair tie under a rug. Just more of his way to make the prey hide from him, so he could stalk it even further.
--His cute little kitten way to cry and paw at you to get your attention. Whether it was for a treat, wet food, to play with a toy, or simply to wrestle with you.
--His Houdini like ability to climb up the pet gate, balance on top of it, and then get down between the gate and screen door, to be able to push his way outside. He suffered many a dousing by the water bottle for this one.
--The way he’d wrap his little kitten arms around you when you carried him. Especially if you let him out in the side yard with you. He’d first aim straight for a pile of dirt to role in. Then he’d be off to check out all the grass and leap like a puma all the way across the yard. You’d be running to keep up with him. But when you picked him up to bring him in, he’d just wrap his paws around you and purr like mad.
--His love for anything high. Loved being on top of the closets. But mostly LOVED ladders. That cat was like a Cirque du Soleil act in climbing any ladder, even if it was put away and flat against a wall. He would literally campus his way up the thing.
--His love to drink whatever you were drinking. No glass of water was sacred. If you brought out a glass of water, he would first drink for a bit from it, then begin dipping his paws in it to bathe. It was always a mess. But the best was his love to drink from Jer’s margarita’s. We were never sure if it was the ice he loved, or just that he was sharing whatever daddy was drinking.
--His deep motor boat purr. You could come up to him all sprawled out on the bed in an afternoon nap, wrap your arms around him and lie down with him, and rub your hands up under his chin. He’d lazily lift up his head, eyes still closed to let you pet him under his chin, then curl over more on his back to nap away with you.
--And in the end, his endless curiosity. We always said he could never be an outdoor cat. He’d be too riveted to whatever he was chasing that he’d never notice a car. And sure enough, that is exactly what happened. I just wish we had had just one chance. That this first time he’d ever gotten out that we might have escaped with a warning and gotten him home unscathed. But we didn’t get that chance. And I’m so sorry. Sorry that his life was cut short after only two short years. Sorry that I’ll never get to see him continue to grow. But mostly, I’m just sorry for all the reasons above and that I will never get to have those moments again with him.
So if you are still reading this, first I thank you for caring enough to read about our kitten and how much he meant to us. But I will also get to my point. Jer and I have finally decided what we really want for a wedding gift. In Thailand, the Korat is considered a sign of good luck. And it's a tradition to give a newly married couple a pair of Korat kittens for luck. And while I know that K2 can never be replaced, I hope that by bringing a pair of new Korat kittens into our lives that we may still see that spirit and love that was in him. I found a breeder in Nebraska that will have a litter of kittens come October/November and I'm going to place a 'hold' on two of them. If you would like to donate to our adopting our "K3" and "K4", then you will have given us an amazing wedding gift.
As a second option, please make a donation to the Humane Society for us. They do such an amazing service in finding homes for so many pets, and without them, we never would have found K2 and Fionn. We've created a wedding gift registry with the Humane Society:http://www.idofoundation.org/cgi-bin/viewdonations.cgi?OccasionID=37469
Or you can donate directly to the Boulder County Humane Society at:
To understand more about Korats and why K2 was "who he was", please check out:
So we are down to the last week before we head out. I'm just more excited than should be allowed. We think we've got everything we need all set up--rings, attire, officiate, location, ceremony, rooms, flights... But if we missed anything, we figure all we really need is a marriage license, passports, and each other. Check, check, and check.
The wedding is planned for 31 Oct around 4:00pm. Greece (and all of Europe) have their 'Fall' daylight savings time change the week ahead of the US and will be falling back an hour on 25 October. This means that sunset will be around 5:30pm while we are visiting. We've also changed the location of the wedding. (Though we reserve the right to change is again after we get there and check things out in person.) The location we're planning to use is the bell-tower of the monastery of Agios Ioannis in Masouri. Basically, much closer location, no barbed wires, no boats involved, and many, many fewer stairs.
