SOGWA'S LAIR!

Gosh, Sogwa's name always got a lot of confusion. When I tell people her name, people would always spell it wrong- or immediately ask, "How do you spell her name?" The truth is, Sogwa (with an O), was always spelled wrong! You know what, for context- Let me tell you the long story of Sogwa's Tale, or... tail, hehe!

When I was 4 years, and still living in Virginia, our parents had decided to drive up to a trip to our maternal grandparents house! Yep, all the way up in Ohio. I usually nap the entire way there and back during the trips, because they're so long and boring for most children. It was another routine trip of hanging out with grandpa on the couch, while my grandma and mother would chit-chat in the kitchen; my grandpa was way better at entertaining children with high energy, he loved chucking me and my brother and our toys we brought with us up into the air. Children love reaching terminal velocity and being chucked like javelins, it's enrichment for them.

Why bring up my gramps? He was the one who told me, my brother, and my parents, "I have a lot of strays come and stay in the garage. I feed them and they keep coming back. I like taking care of them by just giving them a place to stay and some water and food. Since I'm not in there much, they don't bother me much," Bad practice of feeding stray cats aside, then my grandpa tells us, "By the way, you want to take a kitten or two home?" He did this, because at the time- we actually had another cat before, Spicy! Spicy, she was a black cat who LOVED the water; when you were running a bath, Spicy would randomly show up and demand you pick her up so she could sit in the water with you. One day, my mom left the door open, and she had run out. She was telling her father about how bad she felt about not being able to find her again, and how much she was liking having a pet cat in the house. So clearly... we took home TWO cats.

The first cat, Boots; she was a grey shorthair I named after the monkey from Dora the Explorer, I was obsessed with it at the time, and Boots was my favorite character. We had to give her up at some point, because she sustained a back-injury after falling down the stairs from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, and my parents saw her sudden aggressive behavior as a sign it was time to let her go. I have no pictures of her, but I always remember her and Sogwa tussling and wrestling eachother. We didn't have her very long, but I'm including her here because... that's Sogwa's sibling! At least I THINK they were siblings. There were a LOT of cats having babies in gramps' garage; I'm not sure if they were blood-related, but they might as well have been family all the same.

And the second cat, Sogwa; she was a calico shorthair I named after... Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, another show I was obsessed with at the time. As I was 4, I had not remembered the correct name of what the show was called, and always told people her name was spelled 'Sogwa', not 'Sagwa, Sogua, Sugwa'. I remember finding out several years later what the "correct spelling" was, and just continued calling and spelling it Sogwa. Gosh, I was so insistent on it! This meant that as a nickname, everyone always called her "Soggy". Soggy miss Wa. We're not sure exactly when Sogwa was born, but we got her around Easter, so that's when we celebrated her birthday- heck, I celebrated her birthday more than I cared about celebrating Easter.

Now, we had Sogwa for a good while in Virginia. I always liked following her around and crouching down beside her to see what she was looking at. I had read in this big cat book our grandpa had given us that 'cats can be socialized by hanging out quietly and calmly in the same room as them, this makes them feel like you are a safe presence', so I did just that! I wanted to be her friend! My parents told me I was going to turn into a cat: I was that weird little girl who meowed instead of using my words at kindergarten... Sometimes, she would catch mice and place them directly in front of you, before playing and batting them back and forth, and then! She would get bored and leave the mice with you to do whatever it is you do with them. She was a great mouser! When she got older and less agile, she "retired" in a way- she would no longer chase or catch mice, but she would come meow her head off until you would follow her to where she detected mice were; she just wanted to let you know they're there- and she was always right, you could hear the mice where she was pointing.

Then, when I was 8 years old, my parents filed for bankrupcty after my father retired from the navy, as we could no longer afford to live in such a nice big house when he's never had a civilian job before, and is bad at doing anything that isn't being a Boatswain. So, we were packing up everything, and the night we were going to leave- my father, I shit you not- THIS FUCK! He had my mom pick her up, and place her outside in the RAIN- AND HE SAID, "Leave the cat behind outside in the yard, she'll be fine." EXCUSE YOU??? BITCH!!! THAT'S MY KITTY! So obviously, I cried and screamed and CUSSED at him, until he relented to the wrath of a little girl, and agreed to let us take Sogwa with us to Ohio. She was hiding behind two of the garbage bins that were beside the back door's porch, meowing up at us because she was annoyed about being wet and cold. I scooped her up in a towel- and so! Sogwa was smuggled with us across the states into many "no pet" motels as we were moving all of our belongings...

Arriving in Ohio, we stayed at my grandma on my dad's side for about 2 years. It was tough for everyone, but I always felt the worst for Sogwa- there were 2 other cats in the house, and 3 dogs! I guess her being there uh... balanced out the teams? Either way, Sogwa always got into fights with the other cats, so I tried my best as a busy kid to keep them seperated, because I didn't like seeing my kitty with scratches on her face and eyebrows. I tried to make sure she stayed in the basement with us, while the other dogs and cats stayed upstairs; Sogwa never liked other animals at all after living there, she likes people more!

Oh, it was awful- for about... half a year, I had to live AWAY from Sogwa! We had gotten an apartment when I was in the 5th grade, and it was a......... "NO-PETS" apartment...... Sogwa had to stay all by herself at my grandma's house with those other animals that kept stressing her out. I kept asking my mom to take me over to grandma's house so I could go see Sogwa after school; it got to the point where my parents were considering either 1. Smuggling Sogwa into the appartment to get me to shut up, OR- 2. Finding another place to live that allowed a cat so I would shut up. Never underestimate the power of an annoying little girl who loves her kitty cat! But... Then!

Yes! We found a house, my parents bought our own house, where me, my brother, my parents, and Sogwa could all live! We lived here for about... What? 10 years? I'm not sure. I was living here for a long time, I graduated high-school, and I got my first job for 3 years... Anyway! This place was huge! Sogwa was released, sicced upon the house, inspecting and sniffing every nook and cranny of her new lair. It had a massive back yard, I'd always take Sogwa outside to walk around together. My mom always said "she's like your shadow". I'd like to take her to the top hill-y part of the yard, put her down, and then we would race from the top of the backyard, all the way back down the to back-door; as a cat, Sogwa always won every race, four legs are unsurprisingly faster than two! She'd always love to sit directly behind my butt in my computer chair. Sometimes, I'd come home and Sogwa was already splayed out like a starfish on top of it, the little thief who had stolen my seat. She'd always like going out to nibble on grass that grew along the backwall of the house. Sometimes, I would pluck some grass and hold it out for her to bite.
She was always so noisy and curious. She'd meow at you whenever she wanted your attention, or thought she needed to lead you to something was broken that you needed to fix. She always liked coming next to you to sit by you if you were assembling furniture or building something, sniffing each part as a little inspector. She liked to check over each bag of groceries you'd bring home, how else would she make sure a bag contained something like a treat or a goodie for her? If you'd place something on the floor, Sogwa would promptly decide that this was now a chair for her, the loafing on the object was innevitable. Hers now. Sometimes- you would find her sitting funny, posing like a little person on a chair. You could put a little tv remote and soft drink next to her and she'd look like she was watching TV alongside you. She didn't have much interest in any shows or music, she just cared that you were often sitting there, and decided this was a good comfortable place to be: in a place next to you. I pampered her so much with a little treat here and there. I thought you should pamper and spoil your pet as much as a child. She'd been with us for so long, she should be comfortable. Any time she'd have to go to the vet, she'd get so much attention and a few treats and floor-time the whole afternoon afterwards.
She liked to go beneath the porch and dig holes in the soft mud beneath it- it turns out she was using it as an extra litter box when we were playing outside. Gosh- she was so smart about going to the bathroom. She always knew where she's supposed to go, no matter where you moved the litter box. The only time she'd do otherwise- she'd be smart about that too; maybe the door with the litterbox was closed- well, she knows you're not supposed to go on the floor directly itself, so this conveniently placed pair of pants or shirt you've left on the floor is perfectly acceptable to piss or poo on as a temporary measure. Her flawless strategy is unmatched by any man. She always scratched at the door to let you know she'd want to be let inside, though sometimes she would get stubborn with no-one coming to help her, and pry her way into a room by herself. Thumbs be damned? She would always swipe the floor at anything that didn't smell very good, and should be covered up by non-existant litter; it was fun leaning down to hold something in front of Sogwa, to see how she judged the smell: you'd either get nothing, a squinting grimace, or a HUFF!!- followed by many disgusted swipes.
She always cried in a deep meow whenever you weren't home on schedule. My mom said, that when I was in the hospital for a few weeks, or when I was on vacation, or when I was staying over at a friend's for the night- Sogwa would wander around, from room to room, meowing up at mom, meowing at my brother, meowing at my father, looking for me in a deep, rumbling, "Mmmmmmmmrrrrrrrrooooow. Mmmmmmmmmmmrooooow." Mom said it looked and sounded she was demanding where her person was. She'd always come up to me when I slept in too much on the weekend. Sogwa would start meowing directly in my ear, tapping my face and head with her little paws, or just directly lay half of her little body on my head if I wasn't up at 5-6 A.M. like my usual; she was basically acting like my back-up alarm clock whenever I slept through it. This cat. Sogwa excpected me to be up at the same time every morning, even on weekends- this cat had saved me so many times from being completely late for school or work... because if you do not PROVIDE a cat with a schedule, the cat will MAKE a schedule for YOU to follow. Sometimes, if she didn't feel like leaving a room, she would peek at you behind the door, observing you- caring, but distant.

So, eventually, when we had to leave our old parent's home so suddenly for personal reasons- like, about a year or two ago, Sogwa was scooped up and taken with us- obviously! She's one of our essentials, haha. This was when her health started dipping into lows I've never seen it go before, though. I thought, "Yeah. She's 17. It's that part in her life where everything gets more uncomfortable and difficult for her while she's still here. We're lucky to have had her for this long... I should make it as comfortable for her as I can. It's like taking care of your family, like your geriatric grandma, but if your grandma was a few years younger than you, and also a cat."
I thought, She's no longer able to jump? Okay, I'll buy you a ramp for easier bed access. I'll pick you up and give you airplane rides to all your favorite sitting spots so you won't need to do step-up parkour to get to them- since your hips look like they're hurting you. I'll hang out and do more of my work and hobbies on the floor more with you, so you don't need to climb up to sit behind me, you always liked floor-time, so you get even more of it now.
I thought, She's having a rough time with her teeth? Okay, I'll get you some soft cat food that's easier to digest. I'll get you a food and water bowl that's raised up, so you don't need to dip your old bones and hips so much to eat from it. I'll get you some things to help fight back the plaque building up on your old gums. I'll get you yummy treat broths that are easier to eat.
I thought, She's not able to groom herself anymore? Me neither girl, bending like that gets hard as you age. Okay, I'll clean you myself- you shouldn't have to feel your fur getting icky because you can't reach all the spots you used to be able to. I'll brush you so you can feel nice when you're chilling out on pillows like a queen all day. We already loved calling you "the queen of the house" whenever we were all away from home at any point, so why not treat you like one now?

So when it was time for her to go, I cried and cried and cried for a really long time- I had to ask if it was normal for your eyes to get puffy and stingy when it happened, I just had never really cried so long and so hard before then. I don't think I've ever cried that hard about a person's death. Maybe that makes me a bad or weird person; I cared and got more upset about an animal's death than another human's that was related to me. She was 18 years old. We're not sure exactly when she was born, but we got her around Easter, so that's when we celebrated her birthday- heck, I celebrated her birthday more than I cared about celebrating Easter. I don't think I'll know exactly what day she was born, but I will always remember the day she died. I know I'll always remember and miss her. She was one of the greatest family members and one of the best friends I've ever known.

2007 - 2026
A haiku:
It's miss Sogwa's world
And I'm just living in it.
She's my kitty cat.

I don't know if I'll get another cat, because I think Sogwa was the best one I've ever had. Maybe I'll adopt again one day when I am less prone to crying at the sight or thought of her. I do still like the idea of coming home to a little kitty that I'm responsible for taking care of. For now? This page is still all Sogwa's.