Ons Klein Meneer

Recently a couple of my friends have had their pets pass away. It's strange because they have all occurred in a single week. I am so sorry for their loss. It's easy to see how our pets become integral members of our families and it can be painful when they are no longer with us. Sometimes, when the family has young children, it can be especially hard because there could be some difficult questions and conversations to deal with. Thinking about my friends and their pets got me to thinking about the pets I share my home with.

Daleen and I have this pack of nutty cats that more or less live with us. (However, we are NOT crazy cat people... It's not like we have thirty of them living in our house.) I say more or less because we have only one cat that actually "lives" with us. Then we have a stray that has lived under our shed for the past few years, and there are a couple of other strays that wander by from time to time for an easy meal.

I'll start with the strays. We have, for some reason, this female cat that lives under our shed. She had a litter of kittens once, so we named her "Momma Cat". Momma Cat hates us. She doesn't let us pet her or even come near her. The only time she wants to have anything to do with us is when she wants to be fed. So we give her some dry food every day. In return, she is a member of an extremely efficient lawn mole killing force. So, she lives outside year-round and likes to kill small animals. She is definitely the toughest member of our lineup.

After Momma Cat, we have "Visiting Kitty" who was our first stray. Then we have "Skinny Cat", so named because.... well, because he's skinny. Visiting Kitty and Skinny Cat are both males so they don't stick around. They do come back from time to time and we are always happy to see them.

And then there is Tazz. Tazz is our house cat. He technically belongs to Daleen and came with her when she moved from South Africa. He is what you would call "ons klein meneer" in Afrikaans which is Daleen's primary language. It basically translates as "our little gentleman". He is an integral part of our family and I honestly believe Daleen would have to be hospitalized if anything were to happen to him.

Daleen got Tazz before we stared dating. She says he was the ugliest kitten she had ever seen. I have to say I agree with her... I've seen the pictures. He first came to live with her in her apartment when she lived in Pretoria, the capitol city of South Africa. Even at an early age, he was adventurous. He would routinely sneak out of her apartment window to go visit other residents in her building. She would come home to find him gone and would immediately have a heart attack. But eventually, the guy he usually went to see would bring him back.

When Daleen made her decision to move to the US, there wasn't even a question about Tazz. He was coming too. So we learned a lot about importing pets into the states. It's actually pretty easy. We put him in a pet export kennel in South Africa for a while before he flew to get his shots and go through a short quarantine. While we flew back to the states directly on South African Airways, Tazz got to fly on KLM. He flew to Amsterdam where he had a day-long layover. They let him out to walk around but I doubt he made it into the city to check things out. When he arrived in Boston, he cleared customs without any issues and when I went to the KLM cargo office to pick him up, he was out of his box and the employees were all lined up to play with him. He was in his little kitty-glory.

When he flew over, the pet export folks built him this ultimate, IATA approved, animal shipment crate. We never got around to getting him a regular cat carrier, so when we have to take him to the vet, we use his crate. We always get these strange looks when we bring in the crate. It looks like there could be some crazy wild animal in it. I think there is always some disappointment in the waiting room when we open the crate and this little white cat comes out.

Tazz's Shipping Crate (very sturdy, don't you think?):

Tazz's Crate Shipping Label ("1 Live Cat"):

When Daleen moved to Boston, Tazz was the only other living creature she knew there besides me. Shortly after she moved, I got sent to France for a month-long assignment. It was February and we had a huge blizzard while I was gone. Daleen had never seen snow before she moved to the US, so she was trapped in our apartment, for a month, with no friends or family around. But she did have Tazz with her and I think if it wasn't for him, she would have gone home to SA.

Tazz took the move to Powhatan really well. He is happy here. He's a lot older now, so his play is much more subdued. He's even starting to get arthritis in his back legs which has cut back on his running and jumping and he sleeps a lot. However, in Powhatan, Tazz is living his dream of being an outdoor cat. He had always lived in apartments before, so Daleen would never let him out. Here in Powhatan, he spends most of his time outside, prowling about our yard, following his feline instincts. He has even managed to assist Momma Cat in taking care of our mole problem. But he lives the life of leisure, spending his days outdoors and sleeping at the foot of our bed every night.

Tazz is a great pet. He is really good with Colin and shows a great deal of patience with him. He's low maintenance but very affectionate. For the four weeks while Daleen and Colin are in South Africa, he is the only other member of our family at home with me. His just being around makes it much easier to deal with my wife and son being away for such a long time. Daleen thinks we should get another kitten so Tazz will have a playmate. I don't like this because I think he would get jealous and it would make people think we really are crazy cat people.

Tazz has been a good companion to Daleen over the years and she truly loves him. He is getting older but he still has a few years left on this earth and he has aged gracefully. He stopped being that ugly kitten years ago and has lived a extraordinary life as far as cats go. He's lived in two large cities, flown internationally, and now spends his days chasing moles while taking naps on our bed. As far as cats go, he is a true gentleman..... n' klein meneer....