Gracie — A tribute to a great cat

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Author’s note: Our wonderful cat Gracie died two weeks ago today. It was unexpected so it took a while to get our thoughts together for a proper eulogy.

Gracie liked to sleep on the top of chairs especially if there was sun.

We weren’t planning on getting another cat. Then we saw her picture in the newspaper. A small sad one-eyed gray cat of unknown age rescued from a hoarding situation. We already had Morgan, a gray one-eyed cat who is the perfect cat. Aside from a broken leg, she’s been healthy, eats anything you give her and doesn’t cause a ruckus. We were hoping Gracie would be just like her.

Gracie with her favorite toy shortly after we adopted her.

She wasn’t. In her own way she was a great cat, but she had opinions. Many opinions. Our food selection was based on what Gracie would or would not eat. She would dumpster dive for table scraps but refused high quality cat food.

She was a weird cat in that she didn’t like treats but loved kibble. Treats are just amped up kibble, but no amount of discussion changed her mind. When the other three cats got treats, Gracie watched with disdain from afar. Plebeians she seemed to say as if she was the aristocrat of the group.

Head plank was her favorite sleeping position.

She wasn’t a lap cat, but she was a leg cat. She liked to sleep on people’s legs, crippling them in the process. It’s surprising how hard it is to extract your legs from a small sleeping cat without waking her.

She was also the first cat any new cat met. When we adopted Gus, he spent the first couple days isolated in a room. Although he had perches with beautiful views outside, he preferred the darkness of a closet corner. That is, until Gracie came in.

This is Gus and Gracie by the office window taken in June. She looks healthy.

She wanted to visit so I let her in his room (with some supervision initially). Gus weighed twice as much but he was a gentle cat. He would come out from the closet, and they would just look at each other. She seemed to communicate that it was ok. This was a good gig with ample food, toys and sun spots. Sasha wasn’t as welcoming at first, but Gracie always was. After a few days of Gracie therapy, we let Gus out with the general population. She had eased the path for Sasha in the same way the year before.

This is all four cats on mouse duty. I suspect there is a mouse under the treadmill. Sasha is overseeing everything on the left. Morgan is front with Gus and Gracie on the left. Good times! This was 2022 in our basement.

She was seven pounds, but she could not be pilled. Not without risking your life or your skin. Over the years she had barfing issues. Sometimes it would continue for a few weeks and then go away. Multiple trips to the vet never turned up any cause. One time I insisted on x-rays. It cost over $200 to find out she was constipated. On the trip home she laughed her whiskers off.

She liked music. The only thing that stopped her from singing the song of her people on car trips was a good rock song. She preferred AC/DC but any oldies rock group would do. For her, the trip to the vet was her “Highway to Hell!”

Taken in 2019 at our former home with the screened porch. It was before Gus was adopted and before Mollie passed. Gracie is sleeping on the end table. Morgan is looking at the camera. Mollie is under the loveseat and Sasha is on the leg rest.

Catnip was her friend. If I put a little pile on the floor, she would belly flop into it like a kid in leaves. She always made me laugh.

When she got annoyed, she’d lift a leg and take a bath or chew on her toe beans. It was soothing for her.

As she got older, she liked warm spots. About this time of year, I would get out the cat heating pad and put it in the basket and that was her favorite spot for her afternoon naps.

We will miss that opinionated little one-eyed gray cat. Maybe she is doing bellyflops in the clouds.

Morgan on left, Gracie on right — synchronized chipmunk watching.

This is a public service announcement from Gracie. She wasn’t adopted because she was the prettiest or funniest cat at the shelter. She was adopted because she needed a home and with only one eye, she was overlooked. The cats that cower in the back of a cage, are older or are not perfect make wonderful pets. Keep your heart open to the needy ones. They will surprise you.

62 thoughts on “Gracie — A tribute to a great cat”

  2. She was a wonderful, sweet little girl with a lot of opinions for sure! You gave her a wonderful life and a lot of love 🙂 She is for sure doing bellyflops in the clouds and keeping a watch over you all from a warm spot ❤

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  4. kinda reminds my of our orange cat squishy. he was the greatest cat, loudly reminding us its time to eat. I’d take to him, we’d be meowing back to each other. he was a leg cat too, if he wasn’t deadbugging (lying on back feet in air). till he got older, then he turned into a lap cat then a belly cat to a shoulder cat (not riding on shoulder, just when I recline, he’d snuggle next to my head). we lost him a year ago, took him to his last vet appointment, snuggled in my lap. dammit my eyes are tearing up…

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  5. I am so sorry for your profound loss, Kate. I was on vacation, away from my computer…but I saw in my comments that you have already seen the memento I made for Gracie when I got home.

    Please feel free to snag it from that blog on wordpress, or it might be easier to snag it from the identical blogger post. There is a link one each blog to ‘connect’ to the other. If I had your email, I would send it to you directly…

    May all the precious memories you have, sustain you now and forever.

    Sending lots of comforting hugs to you and yours at this difficult time.

    Petcretary Ingrid

    Dalton & Benji send their soft aroos and lots of licks.

    Liked by 3 people

  6. I will miss Gracie’s “opinionated” commentary. Thank you for sharing about her life. I was not aware of your blog when you got her. I think Morgan is the only one you had that I wasn’t here for when you brought her home. 💗🙏

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  7. She was blessed to have been adopted by you. I’ve never heard of a “leg cat” and that made me chuckle as our Trinity did that. Love it when good memories come flooding back.

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  8. What a lovely tribute to an unforgettable cat. Bless you for rescuing her. In some ways, Gracie reminded me of Elsa. With quirks galore, she always made life interesting for your household. Hopefully the Rainbow Bridge will provide her with all the rotisserie chicken she could ever want. ❤️‍🩹

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    • It will be a long time before I can eat rotisserie chicken. The last time I bought it (I always bought two to shred, package and freeze for either her or us peeps), she climbed my legs until I gave her a cup of the shreds. None of the other cats eat it. Cats are weird. Yes she is like Elsa.

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  13. You covered all of Gracie’s attributes in a wonderful tribute here Kate. Your Friday feature had so many nice photos and stories about Gracie that left us all smiling when reading them.

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      • Yes, it was – it is difficult to be upbeat after you lose a pet. I will send you my tribute to Buddy, my mop top canary that I lost in December 2016 in a separate comment. My mom and I had a white canary named Sugar and he got a respiratory disease and I took him to the vet for a 10-day regimen of antibiotics … he got better than just before Christmas I opened the cage cover, he hopped down to the floor, spread his wings and died in front of me, the same year as my mom passed away and close to Christmas. My friend/neighbor Marge insisted I get another bird, so I got Buddy.
        Now, there will be no more pets. I have no family so Sugar, then Buddy after him, were my only family. I do miss lavishing attention and love on a pet, so that’s why I do so on the Park critters.

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          • Yes, it is. I babied that little bird and my mom and I did for Sugar as well. The vet’s office where I took him were super – husband and wife owned the practice and she was an avian specialist. She’d say “you don’t have to bundle him up like a baby to bring him here” (I’d swaddle his cage with a blanket and put the cage in a laundry basket to handle it more easily, each time I took him for appointments – canaries don’t like to be handled, so I couldn’t put him into a small transport cage), but I’d worry he’d get a draft and would plan each visit for toenail clippings and yearly checkups according to the weather – can’t be too hot, too cold, too windy, no chance of rain. She probably thought I was neurotic. I railed at Marge for insisting I get another pet all the way to the vet and home and later apologized. But no more heartache for me … I do miss a companion pet though.

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  15. A lovely eulogy for Gracie. It’s not always easy to be the person who adopted a cat with character, but they do give us great stories and laughs. The rescue had a hard time finding a home for Boss Cat because she hissed at everyone when she was in a cage. Outside of a cage? Super friendly! Greets everyone the minute they step into the house. Probably in the hope that they have food.

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    • Not all pets do well in all situations. Gus spent 3 years in a cat room and was friendly and liked (and pretty too) yet no one adopted him. In his case, since he was rescued at 8 weeks, I blame the rescue for not promoting him when he was young and making adoption difficult. Sasha, who is extremely friendly to people she knows, hid whenever a potential adopter came in. I told the rescue, I’d take her sight unseen. I saw pictures but not the actual cat until I packed her up and took her home. Boss cat seems like a great cat. I’m friendly if I think you have food too.

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  18. Dearest Kate,

    You really did Gracie a favor for taking her home, despite her negative past and her one eye.

    In her own way, she blossomed and she enjoyed being in the sunshine and for being loved.

    Kitties can be very particular about food. We had our 2nd male kitty and he had to eat special kibble from the Vet. We would not fill up his bowl, where it got mixed in, before he ate it.

    Low and behold, in February of 2007 when we pulled up the cotton/wool carpet in our bedroom, where he had his bowls for water and kibble, there was an entire row of the prescription kibble on the edge of the carpet. He managed to HIDE it away as if he ate it!

    They are so very smart and often they can make us laugh.

    Big hugs,

    Mariette + Kitties

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  21. Kate, thanks so much for sharing these photos of Gracie. The photo of Gracie and Morgan—synchronized chipmunk watching both touches my heart and cracks me up. I am so happy she landed with you. She could just be her quirky self because you understand quirky. I am reading a few new things about her and it is perfect for this Friday. It’s a treat to see the 2019 photo of the Sassy Cats on the screened porch. My heart is sad that she had to leave but I think about Jake and hope he met her at the bridge and guided her home. I’m thinking he passed before Gracie came but it would be proper for one opinionated cat to welcome another opinionated cat. Maybe Hazel and Mollie were there too♥ Warm hugs for you, Kate.

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    • We adopted Gracie about 6 months after we lost Jake so they never met. Sometimes the smallest cats are the spunkiest because they have to be. In reviewing the photos, I was reminded how much she was in the fray with the group a lot more than she has been in the last year or so. She would still watch TV with us and sometimes everyone was there but sometimes it was just us. There used to be a cat on every level of the cat trees but she hasn’t been on a cat tree in a while. She preferred her spot by the office window to most any other place. The thing with cats is that you don’t remember they are aging until something happens.

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  22. What a wonderful tribute to Gracie! I always enjoyed her Friday stories and her exquisite taste. I didn’t realize that she was the cat welcomer of your group.

    She will be missed. Her many fans adored her from afar. I hope her cat family is adjusting and her people family remembering all the funny and loving things she did.

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  26. A lovely tribute to a very sweet girl who knew her own mind and wasn’t afraid to show it. I love that about cats – they are SLIGHTLY cooperative but stick to their guns for the most part. I know how much you miss her – the “balance” is off in the household. It’s a tough thing to get used to. I always said when I lost a cat “he/she is still here” but nothing replaces a soft head bonk on the hand or a warm body along your leg……..except perhaps the memories.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • She had a mind of her own yet she was part of the gang. When I was looking through the pictures, I realized how much she had become more solitaire in the past year. Not enough so set off whistles. I don’t know how long she had been sick. Her blood work in Dec 2022 was perfect so it was after that.

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  27. Sorry for your loss. We lost our dog Louis a few years ago and I still think about him. He was a great companion for the whole family.

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