Mazzy Kitty / 2004 – 2009
While coming up from the basement Monday evening Mazzy muscled and barreled on through the slightest hint of the door opening, meowing in descent to the bottom of the house. Typically, when Mazzy wanted something, Mazzy went for it. She was a kitty tank as her comrade Shadow followed the fearless leader into the daily home invasion, even though they had pretty much full access to all square footage. Whether it was bath time, play time, company time, nap time or meal time, Mazzy was one head mama that all other cats and humans respected. Even after tanking up into the top of my old apartment cupboards, one crafty move I might add, to knock an entire bag of cat food onto the floor in order to get her fill, I still respected her.
Back in the basement Mazzy had commandeered my chair. It was nothing out of the ordinary, as she would sometimes spend hours on her own request firmly planted. Budging her caused some back talk and slight hostility, so I usually just kindly squeezed into the remaining five inches of butt space on the front of the chair and went about my business as she went about hers. Plopping where ever the heck you want is business in the mind of a kitty, especially so for this one. But, not exactly where ever the heck she wanted, if my whistle was around.
Since our early beginnings of space sharing, Mazzy and Shadow have known to stay off kitchen surface areas, knick-knack shelves and especially my personal art work tables. And Mazzy especially looked guilty when she’d been caught acting like she’d misplaced the hand book to living with me. Though in fact, the elder kitties have been better about the rule than some of my actual human roommates in the past. And in the case of extra-curious Gangy and Porchie kitties, my rule went straight through thin skulls and into the thicket of Curious Kitty Play 101. I gave up on them, even waiving any chance of Mazzy or Shadow teaching them a thing or two.
To a cat I’m sure the basement labyrinth of makeshift wood planks, odd shelving and whatnots engineered as my clubhouse can easily be taken for a kitty fun house. However, Mazzy and Shadow generally only crawled through the bottom level spaces (Gangy and Porchie are off limits in the basement). Now, I can’t remember the last time Mazzy actually tried to climb up on my work table or computer desk on her own idea. Again, she loved to plant in the chair. I do recall granting her permission on my work table once by picking her up and plopping her down myself. I was feeling like taking up the whole chair on that day and figured it wouldn’t hurt. Plus, I didn’t have any bottles of ink open or loose art for her to alter. Even so, her stay on the work table top that day lasted about 20 seconds before she leaped down into my chair again. I smiled a shrug. She barked a meow.
On Monday evening, Mazzy didn’t just stay in the chair, taking up as much room as kitty possible. She was restless and seemed to want to live a little. Or, maybe she wanted to tell me something when she hopped up on my computer desk, nearly typing her own message at the keyboard (I think she would have if she could have). As I looked up from staring at the computer monitor in a semi-ball of anxiety from having to re-do a digital art project file that had locked-up on me completely the day before, Mazzy only sat in a ball of elegance. In the light of the duck lamp, she radiated the beautiful kitty that she always had been, though usually masked in sass, hair clumps, hard ‘n’ heavy steps on my chest at night and that loud yell from the bottom of her gut that seemed to say, “Get me the number to your local traveling gourmet cat food vendor, pronto!” I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Something told me to run upstairs and grab the camera to shoot another kitty video. I had told myself that I needed to carry it in my pocket more frequently to catch moments like this, or like the moment last Friday when she ran between my legs trying to beat me up the stairs. And for a big girl, she could move. But, my internal video gaze stayed locked on her beautiful blue eyes and cream-brown and black accents mane of hair that seemed in eternal shed. There was something special about this and I’d miss it if I ran upstairs and back to capture it in camera. In my light, in the duck lamp light, she was glowing.
I petted her and told her how good she was, how pretty she was, how loved she was. I then coaxed an invitation to her with my “spirit fingers” (she could respond like a dog…when she wanted to) that it was perfectly OK to travel the hop, skip and jump distance over to my work table, and even a work table covered in a latest project. But, I wasn’t worried about the project getting messed up, like usual. I wasn’t worried about my rule, even though she flashed eyes that read confused to my own misuse of the rule book. I picked her up and put her on the work table. After twenty seconds of sniffs and a couple look-backs at me, she hopped in my lap, skipped back up on my computer table to sit and look at me again and then jumped back down into a cranky wrestle to wedge behind me in the chair.
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This morning there wasn’t a wet nose or sassy meow meeting me at the door to the bedroom at 5am. This morning there wasn’t a kitty leading the way into the bathroom to show me how much food she had eaten in the night, to then show me she could eat any remaining bit of food in all three food bowls to guarantee a refill. This morning Mazzy didn’t nudge the wall corner near the toilet, and then climb on the back of the toilet, with front paws positioned on the wall above to dig just a little deeper into my hand scratching at her back and neck while I stood brushing my teeth. This morning Mazzy didn’t sit and watch the news with Millie and I. This morning Mazzy didn’t race me up the stairs in hopes to get even more food before I left the house to go to work. The house was quieter this morning as four less paws plopped on hardwood floors. This morning Shadow stayed under the bed, something she liked to do anyway, but this morning shrugging back further and with an extra bit of glisten in her eyes. This morning younger kitties Gangy and Porchie knew someone was missing too.
Mazzy left us last night. Shortly after 9pm we found her beautiful body on our bedroom floor. She seemed to have passed peacefully and without suffer. I had her and she had me for almost five years. I thought it would be longer. But, it was just her time to go. I petted her belly and back real good just like she liked, hugged her one last time, whispering good kitty and I’d see her again. -djg
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“Bath No. 1″ is a short movie that was captured two weeks ago. It stars Mazzy licking Shadow.
Shot by: DJG / Starring: Mazzy & Shadow / Kansas City, MO / Apr. 2009
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Mazzy in Pictures. (All Photography & Images by: DJG & MMG, except where noted)
Paul Buzan (in blue jacket) & family gave me a kitty I named Mazzy in the late half of 2004. I believe Paul’s family picked her out of a litter of kitties in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart store. She was my first pet outside of the many-many pets I had from my childhood farm life. So, she was special.
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Shortly after receiving Mazzy, another kitty came into my life. Her name was Shadow Kitty and she came into Mazzy’s life as well. A couple of years later, two other kitties came into play. Mazzy never warmed up to Porchie Kitty, but tolerated Gangy Kitty a little. But, it was Shadow who was her true best friend. Shadow was with Mazzy when she passed away.
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Mazzy was a very happy and animated kitty who brought a lot of joy to a room.
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Mazzy was really starting to make a name for herself outside of the home. This photograph of Mazzy in my chair was featured in an article in Ink Magazine (Photography by: Jennifer Hack / Story by: Sarah Benson)
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Mazzy has been the inspiration for many pieces of art, including these Christmas cards.
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This is one of my favorite pictures of Mazzy as she morphs into a planet next to Earth. Mazzy was a big girl and this image captures her dream of world dominance.
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In the past six months of her life, Mazzy had gotten extra snuggly and sweeter, even though she still had some major sass. She sometimes enjoyed watching movies with me and I enjoyed her company.
For more Mazzy pictures go here.