OUR CAT, STEWART, IS TURNING 18! 

Some people might say that Halloween is black cat season, but I think pure white cats can be just as spooky. They’re like cute little ghosts haunting the neighborhood! Of course, I may be biased because I happen to have a white cat named Stewart. He has been part of our family since 2004, and this year he’s turning 18.

As funny as it sounds, my wife and I bought Stewart as an afterthought. When we came across a litter of kittens for sale, we asked for two little gray ones, but the girl selling them only had one gray kitten left — Stewart’s brother, Huckle. She asked us if we’d like a white kitten as our second cat, and we reluctantly took Stewart home, too. Ironically, he has now far outlived his brother. Maybe we were meant to have him all along.

When Stewart was young, he was a real gadabout in the neighborhood. He liked to visit our next-door neighbor, Terry, and display his tremendous hunting skills to anyone who happened to watch him. Over the years, he has caught birds, squirrels, mice, rats, and even snakes. When he was a kitten, it wasn’t unusual for him to meet me at the back door in the early morning, proudly meowing with the back end of a rat he’d saved for us as a trophy! More than once, he also brought semi-live mice into the house, and Kaye had to chase after them.

Stewart was such a good hunter in his younger years that he became the hunting instructor for the cats in the neighborhood. Years ago, a neighbor told me he’d seen Stewart sitting under a tree side-by-side with a little kitten. Stewart had a squirrel between his paws. Every few minutes, he’d let the squirrel loose and it would scurry up the tree. Then, he’d reach out with a paw and snag it again! The neighbor said that clearly Stewart was teaching the little kitten how to hunt. He made a pretty good Mr. Miyagi.

These days, Stewart isn’t the fierce hunter he once was. He has transformed from a dynamic go-get-’em kitty into an old man cat. In cat years, Stewart is around 80, and just like some human 80-year-olds, he’s a little cranky, sleeps a lot, and complains about his achy joints. He dines exclusively on wet food and spends most of his time napping and meowing for attention.

It’s amazing to me that we’ve had Stewart for almost 18 years. He’s a true family cat, and we’ve enjoyed every minute with him. The only thing I’d do to change our experience would be to grant Huckle the same old age Stewart has achieved. Those young brothers were endlessly entertaining to me and Kaye as kittens. The way they jumped out to scare each other and battled like kung fu fighters made us laugh until our stomachs ached. It would have been wonderful to watch them grow old together.

This Halloween, Kaye and I are going to keep Stewart inside where he’ll be safe and cozy. We’d hate to see trick-or-treaters mistake him for an unfriendly ghost! If you encounter a black cat this month, remember that it isn’t really a bad omen — just someone’s treasured family pet.