It all started “Once upon a time ago….” with the hope that, as in many fairy tales, it would end with “and they lived happily ever after”.
Basil, a stunning black,cat, was born, with 3 siblings to “Mama”, a very wild, stray cat who my friend used to feed. Mama gave birth on a 2nd floor terrace in a building in my co-op, in February 1995. The owners would invite us over to see them all – so, I actually “met” Basil when he was only about a week old. I guess Mama got tired of being viewed by humans because suddenly one day, she & her litter had disappeared! Three months later, we saw them in a broken garage a few blocks away.
The family whose garage it was, had a pit bull, who (we were told) would kill any cats going into their yard. Well, that surely was a good incentive to get Mama & her brood out of there! I was permitted by the homeowners to “trap” in their driveway, which I did several nights a week, for several weeks. I caught, & trapped Mama first, had her spayed & brought her back to her kittens. I finally got the kittens & I put them in my bathroom, where they were literally bouncing off the walls – they were SO wild! They were 3 months old – 2 black, 1 orange. (One black one had gotten separated from his family & had been turned over to me – I bottle fed him & was able to get him a good home). I had named the kitties after the first 3 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, so they were “Aleph, Bais {pronounced ‘base’ }, and Gimel”.
Since I didn’t know if they’d end up having Jewish owners, I changed their names to “Oliver, Basil & Thumbelina”. Bais, aka Basil, was the “least” feral & I got him a home, where he was named “Jordan”, after Michael Jordan; however, due to a minor problem, he was sent back to me within a week & I soon decided to adopt him. Since he was going to live with me, he needed a “proper” name – that means a LONG name! I believed Basil was the son of a certain stray I had seen with “Mama” cat, and the stray was long & lean, like Mick Jagger; therefore , “Bais” became Basil ben Jagger (meaning “Basil son of Jagger” )!
I ended up, though, just calling him “Bais”, his “original” name, & that’s the name he answered to.
I got a home for his siblings, where they’d live together. Once living with me, Basil became immediately friendly with my other cats. My youngest (white)cat, (Benny Max Mariachi), especially adored him. (Later in life, though, Benny became fickle & switched his adoration to another one of my cats, Dexter Ambrose!)
From the beginning of his life with me (he was 3 months old), Basil had the look of a “wise old man” & I nick- named him “Old Man River”. Then, as he got kind of “big” (16 lbs), he was also my “Chunky Monkey”! Basil lost his feral
ways & became so very affectionate & loving. Any time I would pet him, he immediately turned around & start to lick me, over & over.
When Basil was 7 yrs old, he got a new “brother”, another black cat I rescued – “Luke Skywalker”. He and Basil formed an extremely close relationship. They groomed each other, slept with each other, played with each other, put their “arms” around each other – they were the closest of buddies. Basil had a cute habit – like many other cats – & would only drink from a faucet, so he could be seen lapping up water from my kitchen faucet all the time. When it came to physical characteristics, he had an unusually big nose – his vet simply worshiped his big nose – “roman nose” as she would refer to it! Any time I’d bring him to the vet clinic, this vet would call out to anyone who would listen: “Come in here & see this cat. Doesn’t he have a beautiful face?” !!!
Well, I don’t know about anyone else there but I certainly agreed with her! As Basil grew older, he developed thyroid disease but luckily, it was very easy to give him his meds. This went on for a few years & then he suddenly began to lose weight. He was given many tests, medications, consultations, etc., but nothing was found that explained his situation.
This went on for many months and then,suddenly, he stopped eating & his tests now showed full-blown kidney disease. So, at 15 1/2 years old, the “happily ever after” was not to be …….how fortunate was I, though, that the happy times lasted for as long as they did. I know I’ll be forever missing him, “ my Hebrew letter”.