I’m not even a cat lover, and I still teared up a bit reading about our Storyblender’s cat Ruby. This story was shared on our Storyblend Facebook Group and it touched many.
“Ruby was a stray when she found us, so she always had an independent streak and would come and go as she pleased. She would be my shadow for weeks at a time, then disappear for days. She had several neighbors apartments she would visit, lounging on their doorsteps, eating the tuna put out for her, and was even given the privilege of going inside.
Ruby had lived in this apartment complex before we moved in and at one point was captured, spayed, and re-released, as evidenced by the tip of her ear being clipped.
Ruby was an odd cat in that she didn’t mind being bathed. Unlike other cats, who turn into screeching spitfires at the first drop of water, Ruby would stand calm and patient in the bathtub until the last bubble of soap was rinsed out. I will say, in typical cat fashion, she would sit across the room afterwards and give me dirty looks.
On the days Ruby was with our family, she would walk me to my car every morning and be waiting by my parking spot when I returned. She would run behind me to the house and wait by her food bowl. Once she ate her fill, she would settle on my chest as I watch TV or read, purring loudly and kneading with her claws. We enjoyed her love for eight wonderful years.
A neighbor knocked on my door early. “It’s Ruby,” she said. I could tell by the look on her face that Ruby was gone.
A group of neighbors stood around the bush with solemn faces. I knelt and pulled the bush away from the bundle of black and white fur. My stomach sank. It was Ruby.
I buried her next to the slab of my back porch. I rolled a rock over the top as a marker. At first I felt bad, because we are moving next year and we would have to leave her. But Ruby loved this apartment complex. She belonged to several families here – the lonely little old man who watched her when we were displaced by a fire. A young college student who used to wash and clean his car with Ruby lying close to supervise. All of the other neighbors who set out a can of tuna, bent to scratch her ears, or let her jump in their lap. Ruby was a gift to this apartment complex, so it is fitting that here is where she is laid to rest.
See you on the other side of the rainbow bridge, Ruby.”
