The cats in our life

So far during my life, I have had five cats. All with different personalities and behavior.

I love cats because of the impossibility of controlling them, they have their mind and they're willing.

You can't.

Or you can, but only if the cat wants it. If they don't want to they don't.

Our first cats were siblings, their names were, Serpentine and Confetti.

You can imagine how stupid I could feel when I shouted after them if they were out.

The stupid man is shouting after a party with serpentines and confetti. Confetti, the cat, loved only my wife, she really hated me and I could barely touch her.

I had not done anything that could have made her angry, she just didn't like me.

Serpentine was no one's, she was her own.

Serpentine and Confetti were the Queens of our street, always together if there was a fight.

Helping each other.

No one could hurt them or win over them. They ruled the street together.

When Confetti was a little too old, she got pregnant and gave birth to two kittens.

Jama, it is Swedish for meow, because she couldn't, and Bamse.

My wife's mother took care of Bamse, but we kept Jama.

During the birth, Serpentine never left Confettis's side. She cleaned her and lay by her side.

Jama never became a normal cat, the birth must have done something to her so she couldn't fight for the milk from Confetti so Bamse got it all.

Luckily I was between two jobs and was at home every day so I could feed her.

She laid on my chest all day and I fed her with milk for a kitten.

But she never became a normal-sized cat, she was like a kitten all her life.

And a bit retarded.

When she grew older she started to dislike me, she could leave the room if I went in there.

At our summer house was her favorite thing to scare the cows. She could run against them at full speed and the cows run away the fastest I've seen.

The last summer when Confetti was alive, she became blind. At the summer house, she wanted to go out anyway. Serpentine helped her and ran by her side all the time. If she went the wrong way, Serpentine corrected her by pushing her in the right direction. And we had a bell by the door, sounding from the breeze so she could find her way home.

She died a few months later. Serpentine was sad and died a couple of months after Confetti, probably by sorrow.

Jama was used to having cat friends, so the next summer we found a new friend to her.

Sigge, a male cat. He was mine, he always slept on my legs and loved when I hugged him.

He was the kindest cat on Earth, he wanted to befriend every other cat. He had no enemy.

He was always with me when I did things at our summer house.

If I was doing carpentry, he was with me, if I was working with the bees, he was with me.

He followed my side all the time.

I loved him.

Until one day when he was about ten years old, he didn't come home in the evening. Sometimes he didn't do that, he was out all night and sat by the door in the morning.

But this morning he wasn't there, he didn't show up the whole day. So I started to walk around in the neighborhood shouting after him.

No cat was coming.

This was during the hottest days that summer.

At the night, I was out peeing, I decided to go for a walk and shout after him.

Suddenly I heard a weak meow from the forest.

There he was high up in one tree.

He couldn't climb down by himself.

The next day, I tried to climb up in the tree but it was impossible and he was high up in that tree.

So I build a long ladder, big enough for a cat, and tried to lure him down.

It didn't work. so I put a jar at the end of a long stick and gave him food and water that way. My wife tensioned a sail underneath the tree, if he would fall due to the warm, heat day.

Next day, he was still there, so we decided to hire a skylift and try to get him down that way.

It worked, my wife and I went up in that skylift, both of us scared of heights. I was controlling the skylift and my wife reached after Sigge.

After that day he also loves my wife.

When Jama died, Sigge became so lonely and we let our daughter's cat Gösta visit us now and then. Sigge and Gösta became really good friends. For a reason, I don't remember why couldn't have Gösta for a while and he moved into us for a couple of months. After that they were inseparable and when Gösta moved home to our daughter again they were both depressed so he had to move to us for good.

At our summer house, they were together all the time. Sigge learned Gösta to hunt mice and snakes and other animals.

Gösta was no good hunter but tried as hard as he could, Sigge took living mice and dropped them in front of Gösta, to help him become a good hunter.

Gösta slowly learned and is now an ok mouse hunter.

Gösta is a special cat, with his own strong will, he doesn't like to be carried, he dislikes that. He chooses when he should come. He also has a lot of routines, he lies by my wife when we watch tv. Never by my side. At bedtime, he sleeps at my side.

He has also learned to pee at the toilet by himself. We haven't thought him. He watches and learns.

He also loves to run after braids, we shoot away. He found our hidden place with braids in the bathroom and one day when we came home he had spread the braids all over the apartment.

Sigge is now dead, one of the saddest days in my life.

I miss him.

Gösta is now a lonely cat, but he seems ok with that. He has all of our attention and time and love.

He is a bit spoiled I think.

Why are animals so important in people's lives?

I think it's because of their love without demands, you don't have to explain yourself for an animal.

They just are, here and now.

That's something humans have to learn from nature.

We have to exist only for existence.

We have to be more now.

I wrote this to not forget them, they have been a part of our family and should be remembered as that.