Daisy, My Constant Writing Companion
Daisy, My Constant Writing Companion
Trying to write a tribute this morning is difficult because Daisy, my constant writing companion, is not here anymore. Our cat, Daisy, passed away on Thursday. She joined her brothers and sisters, Sophie, Turk, Sugar, Spice, Buddy, and Sarah in the big kitty box in the sky. According to the vet records, Daisy was 15 years old.
So many memories of Daisy fill my mind. It’s been a challenge organizing them for this tribute. Daisy became a model for my first digital painting feature article in Creative Photoshop. I expanded that feature into a chapter of my book, “Digital Photo Painting using Adobe Photoshop.” Her portrait (the original print sits on my office wall) emulates a watercolor painting. She is also the cat sleeping on my ottoman in the photo accompanying my article in The Writer Magazine.
Daisy and her brother Andy came to us from Nancy Nelson, Linda’s good friend and a fellow BRUU member who passed away suddenly in 2011. At the time of her death, she had three cats – a kitten and two long-haired older cats (Andy and Daisy). Rarely did you see them when visiting Nancy because they lived under the bed. Many wanted to take the kitten, but no one wanted the two three-year-old cats. Although we already had three or four cats at the time (I’m not sure of the timeline), Andy and Daisy were added to the mix.
Daisy was a great writing companion. When she was younger, to be close to me, Daisy would sometimes jump up to the top of my high-backed office chair and, after a few stretches, would lie down and fall asleep. Her motor would be running (I’m not sure if it was purring or snoring – but it was loud), almost like she was letting me know she was happily enjoying herself. I could hear the constant hum even with the headphones and quiet music. When Daisy woke up, she would walk down my chair and commonly sit on my laptop keyboard as if to say, “It’s time for you to take a break and feed me!” I’ll miss that!
Over time it became apparent that Buddy and Sarah were Linda’s cats and Andy and Daisy were mine. Daisy would follow me around the house. Once settled into my Ikea Pong chair, Daisy often parked herself on my ottoman between my legs while I wrote and created digital paintings. When I moved to my office, she would follow me down the stairs and park herself on the couch – always watching me. She became my constant companion during those early-morning writing sessions,
One of the challenges of having a long-haired cat is the fur can mask physical problems. Daisy’s weight loss was not noticed until it was too late. I had always thought it was because Daisy was too much of a lady. Her demure attitude let Andy, Buddy, Sarah, and, most recently, Sunshine would jump in front of her at the food bowl. Although there was always dry cat food available, Daisy would often wait until the others had finished eating before Daisy would eat.
When we suddenly realized Daisy had lost a lot of weight, we tried to put her on a protein-enhancement diet of soft cat food. Then I noticed Daisy was only eating the gravy, not the meat.
On Wednesday evening, Daisy jumped up and parked herself in my lap for a long time. Settling in a while purring, she looked up at me as if to say, “thank you for being my dad.”
Thank you, Daisy, for being my companion. You made my life better!