Rest In Peace Miss NastyPants

Sadly, Hubby found our beloved Karma floating lifelessly in the pool this morning.  She must have been farting around the edge like usual last night, believe me we warned her a dozen times but the thing about cats is that they do whatever they want anyway, and fallen in.

Hubby is cursing himself for not putting the cover on like we had planned this weekend.  It is one of those situations where procrastination does in fact have some pretty heady consequences.  Of course, it may just have been her time and cover or no cover she would have met her maker despite.

In any case, it’s a sad day here in my garden as we’ve lost a dear friend.

Karma got her name from Hubby who was the first to meet her when she was a kitten.  Back in 2002 we got a call from a friend of mine whose sister had found a sickly little kitten by the side of the road on her way to work.  Knowing we had recently lost one of Hubby’s 14 year old cats, she thought maybe we’d like to take it in.

Poor little thing had a terrible case of rhinovirus, her eyes were barely open from the infection and she couldn’t walk more than a few feet without sneezing out hunks of snot all over my baseboards.  We took her to the vet who prescribed some antibiotics for her but cautioned us not to get too attached, she was that ill.

Well after a few weeks her infection cleared up but the scarring in her sinus passages left her with an odd sounding purr and the trauma resulted in a nasty personality disorder.  Hence the nickname, Miss NastyPants.  She was one of those cats who LOOKS incredibly docile and sweet but wouldn’t hesitate to tear a strip off your hand if you got it too close to her…even if you were feeding her.

Hubby was the only one who could pick her up without getting growled at and we often had to warn small children who visited that Karma is the kind of cat you look at but don’t try to touch.  Thankfully, she was more likely to run away than attack strangers.  She reserved her stealth like pounce n’ punch for those who lived here.

But lately age had been mellowing her out some and for the last year or so she was much less aggressive and even somewhat playful.  She ceased to growl at me when I picked her up and I got a few purrs out on occasion.

Just last week while Daughter and I were in the basement doing laundry, Karma hid at the top of the stairs and popped out with a paw to give us a whack whenever we walked by…very clearly playing with us.

Okay, here come the tears.  Needless to say, she will be deeply missed.