Last Thursday evening we said goodbye to our sweet Reecey in his beloved garden under the Hydrangea bush where he spent hundreds of hours over the last 9 years.
A comical figure in our apartment building, he helped bring the neighbours together, encouraging friendships to blossom, especially with our upstairs neighbours Cornel and Gratiela who loved him very much. I found Reece in a shelter in Toronto, Canada when he was 2 years old in 2003, and he accompanied me everywhere over the years including living in Toronto, North Vancouver, in a cottage on Bowen Island in British Columbia, a weird hippie/student farm in Biebertal near Giessen, Kiel, a caravan in rural Mecklenburg Vorpommern and to his forever home here in Weissensee Berlin.
He was loved by so many people including many cat sitters over the years, but he had a special connection with Emily who took good care of him for over 4 years here in Berlin. One of my favourite memories was when Emily read a poem to Reece and filmed it. He was always so calm in her presence.
Just over 7 years ago, both Reece and I were very lucky to have Lukas come into our lives. I would jokingly call Lukas ‘Luke Daddy’ to Reece, and it stuck. He loved Lukas so deeply, and it was reciprocated by Lukas with beard scratches and boy time when early in the morning Reece would climb onto Luke’s shoulder in bed like a parrot and just hang out while Luke read, and I was still asleep. Being foreigners in another country and especially a big city like Berlin has often been lonely for us, but Reece gave us comfort during the difficult times. We were a family. We didn’t realise just how much we loved Reece until he was gone. The house is so quiet.
We miss his scratching when he wanted to go outside or come in as well as his little trills when he was excited or would greet us in the morning as well as the funny noise he would make that sounded like a ‘bass drop’ when he was really relaxed. We miss his obsession with sniffing a bag of carrots and Luke’s armpits after a hard days work, and running through the house wanting to be chased, the late night walks…sometimes with the other crazy cat lady up the road who would walk her cat Tiffany at the same time… That was a sight for passers-by that made them smile. We miss the yowls when he was ready to come back from the neighbours garden (we had to lift him over the fence when he got older and couldn’t do it himself), the cuddles and snuggles, the snubs when we went on tour, the Canadian style patience that turned into annoyance when Lukas teased him or when I was learning the Viking violin, and it got on his nerves just a little too much, giving me looks like daggers. We miss scratching under his chin, massaging his legs when the arthritis got bad, stroking his head and ears, brushing him and lifting him into the bath to drink straight from the tap and most of all….watching him relax in his favourite spot in the garden lit up by the sun, so contented, so beautiful. Such a wonderful boy.
I will miss you Reecey, you are my soul mate. Thank you for saving me and loving us so much. Sleep well now, sweet boy.
…. And thank you to everyone who has helped and loved Reece from afar xx
