Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Saying goodbye to Guido

Have made an appointment to put my nearly 20 year old cat Guido to sleep tomorrow. He's failing fast, falling over, just gone blind in one eye, not eating, skeletal, and yet his beautiful presence still shines through making it hard to let go. I named him Guido because the house I lived in at the time had once been an Italian boarding house and Guido means guide, which he has been in many ways in my life. I've known him since he was a little over a week old when I was visiting my neighbors Miya Masaoka and Jesse Drew in the Mission District. Guido climbed up my body and sat on my shoulder purring. I picked him up and he fell asleep in the palm of my hand. He became my cat. When I fell in love with Guy, Guido was not thrilled and expressed this clearly by jumping on the bed and sitting with his back towards us. After he got to know Guy, he fell in love with him too and up until a few days ago still rode around on Guy's shoulders pretending he was a parrot.  Guido along with his best friend Possum have appeared in many of my kid's books like Just Like Me where they are featured and then as random eccentric cats in other books and paintings. My heart hurts and am finding it hard to imagine life without him. Poor Possum and Guy will be devastated too.

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