Kuni Puddin'head Baby
Spring, 2001–February 27^th, 2004
lovingly remembered

I am deeply saddened and devastated to announce the sudden passing at about 11:15 A.M. today, after a brief illness, of my dear feline room mate, companion, and friend, Kuni Puddin'head Baby. I am grateful that I could be here to take her paws in my hands, as she always put her paws in my hands when she recognized that I needed attention, and that I was able to talk to her as she passed. I will miss the way she'd saunter into a room like she'd learned how from a bulldog, the way she'd enunciate the chinese chairman's name, her cuddling with me before going to sleep, and her constant and unending conversation, among the many things that made her uniquely Kuni. She will be missed in the silence that has already become palpable in my  rooms, in how the spoon that I feed soft catfood with will never again be licked clean, and in how the blue eyes set into the black mask that were always there will never again look up to me as I come in through the door. Besides myself, she is survived by her feline step sister, friend, and room mate, Gusto "die ondeugende poos" who I expect will meow for Kuni into an empty place, and meow because Kuni does not answer from where she always answered. I hope you all can realize and appreciate that she has been one of very few everyday constants in my life since she entered it, and has been utterly unconditional with her love, before you ridicule my deep sense of immense loss, shrug your shoulders, and say "it was just a cat."  Because she so often wanted to see the world on the other side of the door I never let her out of, I hope that I'll be able to bury her in a nice spot on Dad's acreage.

Jake (the man)

I want to assure Shelby that when Digger gets to where Kuni is, Kuni will be waiting to play with him: I watched Kuni and Gusto play with a mouse that was fortunate enough to find itself in my place one day last spring, and Kuni and Gusto played hide and seek and a whole bunch of other interesting games without harming that mouse in any way. That mouse could have found itself with cats that wouldn't have
been so kind. (lol). I just hope your hamster won't be afraid to play.

I want to thank Dad for letting me bury Kuni in such a beautiful spot, with such a wonderful view of the mountains to the west. She would have enjoyed the bloom of the lilac bush, and would have loved to prowl through the tall grass that'll grow wildly over her, if she had the opportunity. Because of the amount of traffic that passes by my front door, she was relegated to be a housecat, though I know she would have loved to explore the great outdoors. I'm sorry Kuni. I hope other members of my clan, if they have the opportunity, will also bury the bodies their loved ones leave behind in that same N.W. corner of the property; the fact the body Kuni left behind is buried there has established a special connection to the place for me that wasn't there before.

I want to also thank the veterinarian at the Lethbridge Animal Clinic who tended to Kuni in her final afternoon: I will believe that his ministrations alleviated whatever discomforts she might have experienced over the course of her last night and morning.

Finally, and perhaps mostly, I am grateful and thankful, and will always feel privileged, that Kuni was chosen to be my cat, and that I was determined to be fit to be her man for her short evolution  through time. I have faith that there will come a morning that I wake, and an evening in which I will go to sleep without tears flowing into my ears. I have faith that there will come a day that I won't cry out loud in these rooms, because this place just doesn't feel like home anymore without Kuni's conversation and her unbridled and uninhibited affection for me, and I will come to a new sense of home here with only the quiet, and Gusto's affections and much fewer and quieter talks to keep me company. I'm going to close with a few lines that began to come to me yesterday morning after I'd back-filled Kuni's grave, and stood at the foot of the mound in reflection… 

in memorium
Kuni Puddin'head Baby
Spring, 2001–February 27^th, 2004

the bodies their spirits leave
behind as they become memories

the bodies their spirits leave
behind to remind us
of how we were loved
and loved purrfectly

the bodies their spirits leave

we give them to become
part of the spirit
blown through the wild
prairie grass

and part of the spirit
grown out of the lilac bush
that will bloom over them
in the spring time

to remind us of what
love is possible

          Jake de Peuter
          February 28, 2004
 

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