Freya - RIP
Some of you may know that I lost a dear member of my family this week. Her name was Freya, which is an extremely common name for female cats. Freya, the Norse goddess of love and beauty (!!remember this!!)--among other things, was popularly depicted in a chariot being pulled by cats, thought to be Norwegian Forest cats, which is probably no small part of this association.
I tell you this because I have never met an animal so appropriately named. You must understand, even though she never met you, Freya probably loved you. Every time there was activity at the door, she would come running and immediately try to befriend our visitor. If you sat down in the house, there’s a strong chance she would be trying to climb into your lap minutes later, if that long. She loved attention and had to be where the action is; we’ve seen her leave one room where she was being pet to go to another room where more people are, likely in search of more attention.
And she purred, my god. If you started petting this ridiculous and insistent furball sitting on your lap, before you knew it, you’d hear her purring. A friend was over once and petting her and he looked down and said “I have a motorized lap warmer.” And just as when she was yelling at you for whatever she was yelling at you about, she was loud. I remember her sitting in a chair, purring to herself and hearing it in the other room. My mom got frustrated with her because sometimes she wanted space, but Freya would try to sit up against her in a bid for attention. She impossible to take pictures of because she was constantly nuzzling your hand while you tried. The amount of love from that cat. It was a sign of how deeply sick she was that that last day, when I pet her, I heard no purring.
And I feel a strange pride that, at every vet visit, for just over fifteen years, the techs would coo over her. She would be in her carrier yelling and they would coo and tell her to calm down and how pretty she was. In their defense,
It’s never easy losing a pet. And this one hurt me bad. She very much felt like my cat, even though I was often away at school while we had her. I knew a friend of a friend who was looking to re-home her cats due to a change in living situation, so I brought her into our home. While she loved my mom and dad, she treated me different. The first night we had her home, she took no time to adjust. She was immediately at home. And she followed me everywhere that first night. Right up to when I went to bed. Our home is a little colder and much quieter without her. I’ll always miss her.