{"id":121,"date":"2012-06-06T00:20:21","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T04:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2014-10-11T17:52:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T21:52:18","slug":"sasshi-happier-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Sasshi – Happier Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third part in a three part blog series dedicated to the life and death of Sasshi our cat. \u00a0To read the other parts, head over to Sasshi – The Tragedy<\/a> and Sasshi – Mourning and Recovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, the blog about all of the fantastic things that made Sasshi, well, Sasshi. \u00a0This post is likely to feel a bit like a list because it actually mostly IS<\/em> a list at its heart. \u00a0A list of happy memories, a list of comical interactions, and a list of specific memories. \u00a0Most are good, a couple may be “bad kitty” moments, but overall this is intended to be a record of what turned any old cat into our amazing cat. \u00a0This is also a very hard thing to write (and in fact a good deal harder than the other two posts were), not because it’s sad in nature, but because these happy memories drive the point home that he is now missing. \u00a0Many of these things occurred multiple times a day, or at least very regularly and now they don’t happen any more at all.<\/p>\n

Sasshi’s Personality<\/em>: \u00a0He almost always wanted to be near my wife and I. \u00a0Many cats I’ve known throughout my life tend to be rather aloof. \u00a0Not Sasshi. \u00a0I often described him as having a “Black Belt in Lap-Fu.” \u00a0This doesn’t mean I needed to push him off my lap all the time, it just meant he really knew how to keep his people around him. \u00a0When he wasn’t in a lap he spent a lot of time either on the second couch in the living room or in his cat condo in my office. \u00a0One of his most endearing personality traits was his willingness to purr. \u00a0Almost universally when he arrived at our side he would already be purring happily. \u00a0Before we’d even touched him you could hear his little purr engine rumbling away.<\/p>\n

Rules of Attention: \u00a0<\/em>Many cats have many different “rules” about how they like their attention delivered. \u00a0For example, many cats hate being rubbed in the opposite direction their hair grows, others won’t let you anywhere near their stomach when petting them, still others consider their tail to be completely off limits. \u00a0Sasshi had only one thing he didn’t like at all. \u00a0He was generally unhappy with being held in someone’s arms with his back toward the floor the way you might cradle a baby. \u00a0He would tolerate it for a moment because he liked attention, but that moment was short and then he’d get annoyed and squirmy until you put him down. \u00a0Everything else, including hours of petting his tummy, rubbing his tail, petting him against the grain, even the occasional efforts of my wife to try to make it look like he had a mohawk by rubbing the hair on his head backwards, were all totally fine by him. \u00a0He had a light brown section of hair on his otherwise white chin that my wife referred to as his goatee and he love having that rubbed on almost more than anything else. \u00a0He would tilt his head back to precarious angles all just so it would be easier for you to rub under his chin.<\/p>\n

Green Bunny<\/em>: \u00a0As previously mentioned his favorite object in the world was his green bunny. \u00a0It was a small toy with a squeeker inside. \u00a0The squeaker didn’t make any difference to Sasshi at all. \u00a0Over the years I tried repeatedly to find a replacement for it in fear that it would one day be utterly worn out. \u00a0Nothing did the trick for Sasshi. \u00a0It wasn’t the color, it wasn’t the shape, it wasn’t the texture, even the presence of catnip in other toys couldn’t sway him, it was simply the\u00a0irreplaceable\u00a0object itself. \u00a0He carried it in his mouth almost everywhere he went and often delivered it to my wife and I to the praise of “Thank you for bringing your green bunny.” \u00a0When he wasn’t lugging it around he appeared to like to just have it near him. \u00a0This earned it the nickname “Sasshi’s security bunny.” \u00a0As if by magic, he always knew right where it was even if it was moved by me or my wife. \u00a0Regularly at night he would meow for no obvious reason in the office near our bedroom. \u00a0Shortly afterwards we would often hear him trotting down the stairs and then we’d hear muffled meows. \u00a0These comical meows were a sure sign that he had found his bunny, picked it up, and was telling us he found it. \u00a0The next step was of course to carry it back upstairs and deposit it in our bedroom before jumping up onto the bed with us for the night.<\/p>\n

In the Bathroom<\/em>: \u00a0Nearly every time anyone went to the bathroom, Sasshi wanted to be there too. \u00a0This started, I believe, with a pattern he established as a very young kitten. \u00a0Very early in his life, he realized that joining me in the bathroom resulted in effectively undivided attention for him. \u00a0When he was tiny, he would climb into my pants as they sat around my ankles (sorry for the mental picture). \u00a0Once there he would purr in the safe confines created by the walls of my pants. \u00a0Occasionally even as a full grown 19lb cat he would attempt to relive his youth only to discover he had absolutely no hope of fitting in my pants. \u00a0This shared bathroom time later resulted in a routine announcement to the cat that I was heading to the bathroom, the results of which were almost always him following me there. \u00a0His enjoyment in the bathroom was not limited to only toilet time. \u00a0He also regularly waited on the counter or toilet for the occupant of the shower to be done. \u00a0He waited on the back of the toilet for someone to realize he was there in an attempt to get someone to rub his head. \u00a0He also had a great time completely scrambling up the bath mats by either skidding to a stop on them or starting into a full on run while on them. \u00a0In either case the result was bath mats all folded up by the heater and occasionally a cat toy would be present as an explanation of what had happened.<\/p>\n

Daily Routines<\/em>: \u00a0Since Sasshi was always around, and generally followed us where ever we went, there were loads of opportunities to create daily patterns. \u00a0Waking up each morning, I almost always found him laying next to me. \u00a0Once he realized either me or my wife were awake he would often move into a better position for getting attention. \u00a0When putting on shoes to go head out somewhere, he was always there nuzzling the railing of the stairs and purring while waiting for a little extra attention. \u00a0He would regularly lead me to his food bowl where he would grab a quick snack and I would confirm there was enough food in the bowl. \u00a0At no point in his life that I know of did he ever go even remotely hungry, but he always liked to make sure he had enough food available, especially when his people were heading out of the house.<\/p>\n

Vacation Related<\/em>: \u00a0When packing for a trip we often got the impression that Sasshi knew exactly what was going on. \u00a0We have turned our backs long enough to discover him sitting in the suitcase. \u00a0This could certainly be a standard cat in a box type thing, but who can be sure he wasn’t thinking this was the way to be brought along with us. \u00a0To further back up this theory, on a separate round of packing, we found that he had placed his green bunny into the suitcase. \u00a0We figured that meant he considered himself packed and ready to go. \u00a0Universally when we returned from a trip he would purr louder, purr longer, and wouldn’t stop being in direct physical contact with one or the other of us (though usually both if he could figure out how to sit to make it happen) for at least twenty-four straight hours. \u00a0This included following us from room to room, following us into bed, and many position changes to optimize how close he was to us on the couch. \u00a0I always felt bad leaving him behind, but based on his passionate hatred of the cat carrier, even if I felt like it would be a good idea to bring him along for something local, I knew it would really be a terrible idea.<\/p>\n

Food Related: \u00a0<\/em>Sasshi was a purely hard cat food powered animal. \u00a0Aside from an occasional cat treat, or a small nibble of some sort of our food, or perhaps a plate to lick after dinner, he ate very little else. \u00a0Even things you would expect a cat to like such as bits of fish, scraps of chicken, nibbles of beef, or other random foods\u00a0carnivorous animals would enjoy, really did nothing for him. \u00a0He would enjoy the occasional tidbit, but more often than not he would wander away having left whatever it was sitting there uneaten. \u00a0As with all things, there are a couple of notable exceptions to everything. \u00a0Sasshi loved yogurt more than anything else in the world. \u00a0I’m convinced that if I had ever given him a cup of yogurt of his own it would be entirely consumed. \u00a0In general he never begged for anything food related at all. \u00a0He would sit on one of the kitchen table chairs like he was a person and silently watch. \u00a0He was wired to throw all of his normal patterns out the window for yogurt though. \u00a0He would meow for it, he would try to put his face into the cup you were still in the middle of eating, and he would try to climb on you. \u00a0Being rather intelligent however, a simple “Hang on bud, you’ll get it when I’m done.” and a gentle nudge away from me would usually result in him sitting on the floor staring at me and waiting. \u00a0He was very patient for this, but you could see him getting excited when I started to scrape the edges of the cup with the spoon. \u00a0Oddly enough, he also liked to have a small nibble of a pancake sometimes too.<\/p>\n

Bedtime: \u00a0<\/em>Aside from sleeping with me and my wife every single night, he also seemed to dislike being cold. \u00a0Ever since he was just a kitten, he loved sleeping under the covers pressed up against me. \u00a0Based on this happening primarily during the colder months, my assumption was he wanted the warmth, but based on the amount of purring, I think he also just liked feeling cozy next to me. \u00a0The part that was amusing about this to me was that he was either lazy, polite, or just plain dumb about how to end up under the covers. \u00a0Cat’s have pointy heads (well most of them do anyway) and that makes them quite good at nosing their way under things. \u00a0This could be a blanket laid on the couch, a comforter folded up on the floor, or even as a tool to open doors. \u00a0The use of this “tool” to get under the covers with me was apparently too crude for Sasshi. \u00a0Instead he would walk up next to my head and gently poke at the covers with a paw. \u00a0If that didn’t work he had been known to do other things like poking my head, sniffing my face while purring (which was an amazing way to tickle someone into doing your bidding with your whiskers) or walking on me until I was ready to lift the covers for him. \u00a0Once the covers were lifted, he knew exactly how to do the rest. \u00a0He would walk in, do a 180, make like he was going to walk back out and then stop before he did. \u00a0He would lay down with his paws on my arm and purr and usually fall asleep. \u00a0Eventually he would decide he’d had enough, or perhaps overheated, and would wander out of the covers and go somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Wildlife: \u00a0<\/em>As an indoor cat, he was never allowed outside, and in fact, if left near an open door demonstrated almost no desire to go outside besides simple curiosity. \u00a0There were however lots of super interesting things outside to watch excitedly through the sliding glass door. \u00a0Thing that could push his buttons ranged from squirrels and birds to local outdoor cats and even leaves caught in the wind. \u00a0When things were interesting to the point where he couldn’t stand it he would “chitch”. \u00a0This noise was almost like an\u00a0abbreviated meow, but where his mouth does little more than twitch. \u00a0He would be all hunkered down like he was just itching to pounce on whatever it was if he got the chance and his tail would swing back and forth aggressively. \u00a0No matter where he was in the house, when the glass sliding door was opened he would be there to check out the outside, now with smells through the screen door.<\/p>\n

This post took an astounding 6+ months to write. \u00a0Not because it was super long (which it actually was I suppose), but because I regularly found myself unable to continue to write about Sasshi without being very sad. \u00a0Even on my final attempt to finish it rereading it to see what I still needed to add to the list caused me to almost immediately begin to cry. \u00a0Not especially manly of me I suppose, but he was an amazing cat and I miss him terribly and all these wonderful things he did all the time really drive that point home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third part in a three part blog series dedicated to the life and death of Sasshi our cat. \u00a0To read the other parts, head over to Sasshi – The Tragedy and Sasshi – Mourning and Recovery. Finally, the blog about all of the fantastic things that made Sasshi, well, Sasshi. \u00a0This post is likely to feel a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.trollserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}