Tiger Lily’s Gentle Trek Across the Rainbow Bridge

In “Star Trek: The Next Generation” our Klingon buddy Worf was wont to say “Today is a good day to die!”

While we are heavy of heart from helping Lily onto that f*cking amazing rainbow bridge yesterday, we were happy to see her enjoy some of her favorite things on her final day. And to be a part of what turned out to be a peaceful, loving process.

1. The heated tile floor
Tiger Lily and her brother Scrumpy probably lived half their lives stretched out in resplendent happiness on the heated tile floor in our master bathroom. Seriously, they loved that thing, and both had their specific favorite spots near either the heating vent or alongside the toilet.

Over the years after several unfortunate accidental episodes of “kick the cat” both Tiger Lily and Scrumpy learned to pay attention when I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. They never had that problem with Dana, who uses her phone to navigate to the bathroom in the dark.

It was with pleasure that we saw Lily spend a significant part of her last day sitting on the tile floor; while we knew she wasn’t entirely comfortable based on her physical challenges, it was nice to see her out in one of her favorite places rather than hidden away in the dark.

2. Plastic licker
We all have our weird kinks, and for both Tiger Lily and Scrumpy one of the odd things that they both loved was licking plastic. I don’t know if this was a genetic oddity for just the two of them or if it’s a common behavior for cats in general, but they definitely liked licking plastic, usually in the form of plastic bags. Grocery bags, Ziplock bags, bubble wrap, the bags that grocery stores put flowers in so they don’t drip water all over the store… they’d lick it, bite it, and occasionally eat and then toss it back up a little while later.

For Lily’s last day I bought a bunch of beautiful lilies from Fresh Market.

I bought them in part so we’d have lilies for her burial, but mostly because I wanted to leave the plastic bag on the kitchen floor just… in… case. I mean, she’s feeling bad, hasn’t really eaten in days, how likely is she going to want to go into the kitchen and lick plastic?

And then she did. Several times. It was really nice to see.

3. Purr-ball
At times we would call Lily “purr-ball” because she could purr so loud and strong when she was happy.

With her downward spiral this week she was feeling so sh*tty poorly that I thought I’d never hear her purr again. I even dreamed about her purring the night before and woke up happy that at least I had heard her purr in my dream.

And then, sitting on the bed with her yesterday, slowly and gently petting her, she looked at me and purred. Quietly. Softly. But it was there. Just a little bit of heaven for me.

4. Come to me
Lots of cats I’ve known – you might say the cat persona, in a way – do the opposite of what you want.

“Sit on your lap because you want to love me? I think I will sit across the room, thank you.”
“You’re trying to work? Then obviously you need me between you and the computer.”
“You want me to come to you? I believe that’s my cue to exit stage right.”

Lily, however, has always been excited to come to me when I call her. I have vivid memories of her running all the way down the hallway so I could pet her and scratch her under her chin and around her ears and pat her in that special place just above her tail.

One of the ways I knew she’d been feeling bad this week is that when she was passing slowly through the room and I called to her – a time in which she would normally happily come running over – she didn’t even stop to look at me, instead just kept walking gingerly to whatever other not-feeling-great hideout she was headed to.

So when I was sitting in the living room yesterday and she had just been in the kitchen licking the plastic flower bag, I called to her expecting that she would ignore me and walk back toward the bedroom. She paused. She looked at me. And then she walked over to me, ever so slowly, and let me pet her gently for a few moments. I’ll remember that forever.

5. Here comes the sun
In the movie “The Time Traveler’s Wife” co-starring Rachel McAdams, who somehow has made a living being the wife or fiancé or girlfriend of time travelers in multiple movies, there’s a moment in the future when her husband the time traveler (who died years earlier) briefly appears in a field near the house.

Her daughter tells friends to run get her mother (McAdams), who then herself comes running for this wonderful brief moment in the sun before he returns to the past. (I probably should have said “spoiler alert” but the movie was released in 2009, so get over it.)

Anyone who has cats doesn’t need to be told the wonders of a kitty sitting in the sunlight in regal stateliness. One of Lily’s favorite places other than the heated tile floor was her cushion next to the living room window where she would catch glorious morning sunlight.

Yesterday, I was back in the bedroom doing something – probably fearing the next hour – when I heard Dana softly call to me. I walked out the to the living room and there was Lily, standing by the window in the sun, mere minutes before her appointment.

I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to take this last photo of her standing there in the sun.

While having your loved ones go will probably never count as a great day, seeing Lily be able to enjoy these last few things made it a better day for her to die than we might have otherwise expected or even hoped.

We love you, Tigress of the Lilikins.