Remembering Raja Kitty

Dear little Raja kitty, you are in kitty heaven now, but I still miss you lots. Here are some of the things that make me smile when I think of you.

Raja was my very first cat. Growing up, I was not allowed to have a cat due to my dad's and my sister's allergies, so once I became an adult, I went about rectifying that. I went down to the local pet shop and there was a cage with a few rescued kittens in it. The Richmond SPCA was trying to find these little kittens new homes. Of the three or four kittens playing around in the cage, Raja was the only one asleep. And he was sleeping in the litter box. The minute I saw him, I knew he would be coming home with me. He was a little ball of white fur with grey stripes and fearless. I named him after the tiger in Disney's Aladdin.

Over his life, Raja never did outgrow his strange obsession with the litter box. Whenever I changed out the litter, he'd run over, jump in, paw around a bit and then curl up to take a nap, tucking his front paws beneath him, contented kitty smile on his face.

Raja was a runt of a kitten, and even though the SPCA promised me he had had a vet exam and a clean bill of health, he did not seem to be as active as I thought a kitten would be. I took him to the vet and discovered he had an eye infection, a cold, an upper respiratory infection, and worms. I spent the first couple of weeks force feeding him medicine for his ailments and prying his eyes open to administer eye drops. (Even as an adult cat, he sometimes wheezed and I believe it was due to his early illness.) After just a couple of days, I came home from work to a changed kitten. He was so, so playful and mischievous. Poor thing, he must have felt really sick before that. He loved to paw at my hair and always had to be touching me, even if it was just a paw touching me as he napped next to me on the sofa. He never outgrew this habit. He wasn't big on taking naps on my lap, but whenever he slept near me, he had to have some part of his body touching me.

In addition to wanting to be touching me while he slept, Raja also pet me. If he felt I was not giving him my undivided attention, he would gently pet my arm with his paw and give a questioning meow while looking deep into my eyes. It felt like he was saying, "Mama? Do you love me?" while he returned the favor of petting me with his paw. Sometimes he would curl his paw and catch my hand in his "hand."

I remember the day that I took Raja over to my boyfriend's apartment to get acquainted with his cat, Jazmyn. My boyfriend and I were considering moving in together, but we thought we should see if the cats would get along, first. Jazmyn was about a year old and much larger than Raja, who was still a small kitten. I brought Raja over one evening and set the carrier down in the middle of the living room and opened the door. Jazmyn cautiously crept over to investigate as Raja bolted out of the crate. Jazmyn hissed at Raja and retreated to the far wall. Meanwhile, Raja confidently strode over to Jazmyn, stood in front of her for a minute, and then swiped her across the nose with his paw before darting across the room away from her. My boyfriend and I just kind of stared at each other in shock as Jazmyn took cover behind the recliner. This little kitten, who was half the size of Jazmyn, just asserted his dominance on her territory. That moment forever established their relationship with each other. From that moment on, Jazmyn always allowed Raja to have the top spot. He always ate the food first while she whined in the background, waiting her turn. While Raja would play attack her and mock stalk her, always pouncing on her like a mini tiger, she never returned fire. Sometimes she would mock stalk him, waiting for the perfect moment to rush towards him, but she always stopped short of ever touching him when she reached the moment of impact.

Raja's confidence was boundless. One time I bought a leash and harness for him, because I felt bad he was an indoor cat. I wanted to take him outside so he could enjoy the fresh air, but since he was declawed, I needed a way to make sure he would be safe. The first time I took him outside, we went to the backyard and he had a good roll in the grass. I bet it felt wonderful. As he was enjoying his roll in the grass, a thought casually slipped into my mind. I'm outside with a cat on a leash. What kind of trouble will I be in if the neighbor lets her dog out? Will Raja freak out? (The neighbor had a noisy Sheltie that she would let out in her back yard so it could do its business. Thankfully, both our yard and the neighbor's yard were fenced.) As if reading my mind, at that moment, the neighbor opened her door and her Sheltie bounded out. As soon as the dog spotted Raja, she started barking incessantly. Raja bolted upright but did not run like how I'd feared. Instead, he fixed his eyes on that dog and to my utter surprise, began slowly walking over towards the dog. His tail stood straight up and fluffed out like a bottle brush. I could see him shaking as he continued over to the dog until he was nose to nose with the dog, just the metal chain-link fence separating them. The dog and Raja eyed each other for a tense minute and then Raja merely made a false lunge forward, taking the dog completely by surprise. The dog let out a yelp and made a beeline for the far side of her yard, tail tucked. Satisfied that he made his point, Raja turned and walked away.

As Raja grew up, his coat darkened until he was more grey than white. His eyes turned golden yellow and he developed dark grey stripes over his lighter gray fur. Only his chin and his belly remained white. Raja had the softest cat fur I've ever felt. It was so fine and silky short. He still remained very small, only topping out around eight pounds. He always looked a little underfed, even though he had access to food 24/7. Neither cat had weight issues, so we continued to free-feed. I even tried to fatten him up with special treats, but he never gained so much as an ounce.

Despite his small stature, Raja made his presence known. He developed little personality quirks that were at times endearing and at times annoying. If I called him, even if he was in a deep sleep, he would come bounding out from wherever he was to see me. But he only came if I called him just so. I had to call him like this: "Raaaaaja, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!" with my voice going up high at the end. He never came for anybody else, and he wouldn't come if I called him any other way. He loved to eat plants, so I could never have any live plants in the house. He'd devour them instantly. He also had an affinity for rubber bands, but they made him sick. When the mail arrived and it was held together with a rubber band, I had to take the rubber band and immediately dispose of it.

Raja's love of rubber got him in serious trouble. He had apparently eaten the rubber end of a door stopper, and he had to have emergency surgery to remove the foreign object, as it would not pass through his system. When he was well enough to go home, I went and picked him up from the vet's office. His belly had been shaved and he had ugly stitches starting at his rib cage and traveling all the way down past his navel. They were dark and horrible to look at, like flesh on a raw Thanksgiving turkey. And he was so skinny and sickly looking without his fur. I felt sick to see him this way. He looked so forlorn, always meowing for me. Even all drugged up on pain and sleep medication, he knew he needed me. I slept for a week on the living room floor so he could stay near me and touch me with his paw as he slept and healed.

Another obsession of Raja's was water. I don't recall when his interest in water began, but over the years it steadily grew from love to outright obsession. Although he started by playing in the bathtub after I had taken a shower, his love of water caused him to run into any room containing the sound of running water. No longer could I take a bath or shower in peace, brush my teeth without him trying to lap up the water from the bathroom faucet, or even fill a glass of water in the kitchen sink. And if I accidentally left a glass of water on the table or countertop, look out! Raja would sneak up ever so quietly, dip his paw into the water and then lap up the drops from his paw while purring. Other times I would find him sitting in the kitchen sink as though this was a very normal and routine thing to do.

Ah, Raja, my little pumpkin kitty, my darling sweet pitty-tat, I miss you. You were taken from us far too soon. For such a little cat, you made a huge impact on our lives.