joyful2beeblogs

This post is about my first and only black cat that was given to me from my second son and his wife. Norie had to be euthanized December 15, 2025 due to painful arthritis in her lower spine. I miss her still.

The lengthy isolating stay in my home during “the Covid era” was made more tolerable and even enjoyable by the joys, challenges, interesting behaviors, and fun that was my black cat, Norie. She had, what I considered, very intelligent methods of communication. She was a pro at making me laugh; giving me company; and teaching me lessons. In spite of the above delightful attributes, she could be irritable, sneaky, and pushy. So she managed to keep me busy.

When Norie wanted food, she would come to sit where I could have good eye contact with her. Then she would look at me and lick her lips with her little pink tongue. She stayed in my line of sight until I told her, “I will feed you in just a minute, after I finish this.” She stayed put or came closer to me, if she felt that I had made her wait too long.

If she wanted food much earlier than she was supposed to be fed, I set the timer for 30 minutes or however many minutes were lacking and told her, “When the ‘beep-beep’ goes off, I will feed you.” She actually seemed to understand that I was not going to change my mind or forget! So she would lie down nearby untill the ‘beep-beep’ went off. Then she would run to the door and sit in the doorway of the bedroom, waiting for me, (lest I forget the way!)??

Then there was the issue of when to wake up. I usually got up thirty minutes to an hour before I could eat, after taking a pill for stomach problems. So I would get up about 6:00 AM and feed her and sometimes go back to sleep. I hardly ever really needed to set the clock. Often I awakened when I felt someone looking at me in the early dusk of the morning and there she was sitting near my head waiting for me to respond.

Sometimes I felt when she jumped up on the bed, which gave me some warning. I used to wake up at 7 AM and she woke me up then too. Later she set her inner clock back sixty minutes somehow! I dreaded Daylight Savings Time change!

One morning she woke me up and I looked at the clock and saw 6:29! I cleared my sleepy eyes and looked again and the clock changed to 6:30! Wow, I was amazed at her deadly accuracy! She also knew that after her breakfast it was time to give her her medicines.

She kept me company and made me laugh often. When I sat in the recliner, I opened the curtains and blinds to the window when it warmed up. She loved to sit there soaking up morning sunrays. She would always lie with half of her body on the blue storage boxes and the other half on the window sill.

She also made me laugh, when I got up from the recliner and walked around to the other side of the bed, I look down and there she would be on her back staring up at me with her front paws resting on her chest. I couldn’t help but laugh at how cute she was.

Norie taught me about sharing my living space with another very independent, sometimes not affectionate, sometimes territorial being. I already learned from two different relationships to be the peacekeeper; be agreeable and try to keep myself calm.

Norie liked only so much petting once she had been given her morning affection and she marked me as hers with her cheeks and licked my hand or arm.

Norie sometimes got overstimulated with what was, for her, “too much” petting; which is the only time she nipped at me. I learned to be very aware of her tail, eyes and ears for signs of overstimulation.

Once I must have missed something or misjudged Norie while she was in my lap. She nipped my hand and drew a drop of blood.

I was shocked and pushed her off of my lap onto the floor and yelled at her for biting me. I was sobbing and then I found myself saying, “I didn’t deserve that! Just like my husband!” Suddenly I realized that I had not been aware of the pain that I still carried. Now I felt the pain from my marriage and let it out. Norie and I got along much better.

The other thing I learned was to guard my nicely warmed recliner when I had to go to another room. Norie found a warm seat irresistible. So when I got up, I told her, “I am coming right back!” (She knew what this meant.) When I came back, I found that she had inevitably spread herself over the seat enough to “graciously” give me a fraction of the seat I had been sitting on.

I had the recliner covered with a padded cover. Whenever I came back, she hadn’t moved. When I told her that I want my seat back, all I had to do was lift the recliner cover to lift her out of the seat. Planning ahead for these eventualities was very helpful.

I am still very thankful for Norie’s company. I still think of her almost every day. It was wonderful to have someone besides myself to talk to. She was so pretty and so smart and could be very funny.