• Armpit scratches, stretched out long on the floor so I could scratch his 'pits, and rocking side to side so I could get right AND left. He was a pathetic purrer, but if the scratches were really good he'd let out this growly sort of sound interspersed with squeaks like an adolescent boy's voice breaking.

• Bugs. Birds seemed to be beyond him a bit, but he would patiently follow a bug around the house for ages. If he was really curious. he would lean down to sniff it - and bop it with his nose. I think his depth perception was poor!

• Cardboard flats that tin cans come in. The 24-size ones fit him best. He loved to lay on his side in the box, with his head hanging over the corrugated lip, and ratchet his head up & back to get a neck scratch. He preferred this to using his back feet to scratch, and even preferred it to my finger nails. Unfortunately, it looked to outsiders as if he were having a seizure: glazed eyes, tongue hanging out in ecstasy, and then the head jerking back - jerk - jerk - jerk - until it was waaaaay back, and then swing the head back down again to start over. Ahhhhh.

• Boxes in general. Yukon would make an attempt to sit in any cardboard box presented to him, and he wasn't a small cat. All four feet would fit inside the mandarin orange box, for example, but everything up from the elbows was NOT going to. So when he tried to lay down, WHOOPS and over he would go. Most embarrassing.

• Television. TV has two purposes: (1) by standing in front of it, one has the complete and undivided attention of every human in the room. Yukon's body neatly covered the front of a 21" screen. (2) The top of the TV becomes nicely warm and serves as a foot warmer. If human attention wanders, just swing your tail in front of the picture.

• Food. There was no question that Yukon's ultimate loyalty was to Food. He would appear if you called his name, but he would run to you and get in your face if you called "Cat Food." DH reports that he never forgot to feed the cats, because at about 9:30AM, he would hear a noise and turn around to see Yukon watching him intently. Yukon had a way of sitting up straight, then adjusting his paws and tail which clearly was the equivalent of clearing his throat. And then he would say, "Mrraaa -Mew" Yes, he said "Cat Food". Mrraaa-Myoooo. And look at DH expectantly. Come on come on come on, get with the program people. We need our Mraa Myooo down here.

• Hugs & Kisses. Yukon, as mentioned, wasn't a cuddler. But he would sit up on my dresser and wait for me to come over. I would stand in front of him & pet or brush him, and Yukon would sit up gopher style, wrap those so-long front legs around my neck, and rub his face against my cheeks. It was like close dancing, chest to chest.

Copyright © Krista Clement
May 15, 2002