Talulah

She was the runt of the litter. Small at birth, but lived large. Matriarch to the animal world for twenty- three years, she ruled with a look so icy that not even her human companions dared cross her path. When she entered the room, everyone and everything took notice. She endured multiple moves and multiple adventures, some resulting in the permanent loss of flesh. She only let few see her softer, more vulnerable side and for those who did it was not taken for granted.

She was the queen of the house and her throne was wherever she saw fit at that moment. Her favorite forms of exercise consisted of daily romps ridding the yard of moles, mice, lizards, and the occasional baby bird that fell out of the tree. She showed them no mercy and would bring them as offerings and leave them at the doorstep then hide in a near by bush and sway back and forth anticipating one of her plebes finding what she had worked so hard to vanquish and dream of the bowls of cream she would be rewarded with. When she could find no such offerings, she found pleasure in climbing up the screen doors only to be found clinging to them with her talons wrapped around the wires so tightly it sometimes took two human companions to free her. When that began to bore her she took glee in utilizing her vocal skills while perched upon the highest branch of the tree, she refused to come down until the eldest male human companion had gotten a ladder and started the ascent to come to her rescue, it was then she gracefully leapt from the branch to the nearby window only to turnaround displaying her Cheshireesque grin.

Her favorite indoor activity consisted of one of two things but always started out with a yawn and stretch leaving her youngest human companion’s bedside. She would wait until she heard the eldest female human walk towards the stairs then in frenzy; she would weave in and out of her legs hoping to trip her up. When that got old, she’d wait at the very bottom of the stairs, pressing herself so far down that you couldn’t see her if you were walking to the bottom step, then just at the last moment, would jump up and chuckle to herself as the human would proclaim profanities that would put a sailor to shame. This was her entertainment, her jest, how she amused herself.


At eighteen she ventured out on her own, much like her younger human companions did, and thought to have grown tired of her life and moved on to a higher plain only to be found two years later yowling under a neighbors car. Seems she over estimated her mortality and after a reminder of this, found herself weary, dazed, and confused and now living just two doors down from her beloved human family. When she was reunited with her human and animal companions the emotion was overwhelming. She stared at each one, and for one human companion in particular, she sat on her lap and wouldn’t leave basking in the awe of her loyalty. The reunion was bitter sweet. She was back with her family physically but emotionally she wasn’t. She had grown old, weary, and developed physical disabilities that only after a dog attack would be diagnosed as a virus. She, the queen of the domain feared and revered by all, was delegated to a corner of the bathroom where should she miss the litter box would not be a cumbersome chore to clean.

When she outlived the eldest male human companion, it was thought she wasn’t real. She sat outside his door; mourning in her own way, “Where are the batteries” was the first thing her eldest female human said. How could she outlive one of her human servants?! It was only then did her most loyal human servant see that twinge of her old Cheshire grin and as they carried him away, with a twitch of her tail, she left the room, head down, and mourning the loss of one of her own.

Two years passed and she finally conceded to the inevitable. Elderly, weak, feeble, and no longer able to resist the temptation of death she laid flat arms, legs, tail, and head extended as far as she could and breathed her last breath. She now lies under the Egyptian cat statue in the backyard next to the pond and to the right of the waterfall. A reminder of her former self, strong, confident, feared, and supreme ruler of her domain but most of all loved.

Her voice carried in a low yet powerful monotone that resembled the late Tallulah Bankhead. It was for these reasons we named her Talulah, minus the double “l” because, you know, a queen has to be unrivaled ;)