My Brother’s birthday is a couple of days away and I remember this because it’s also the day one of my best of pals, Shoes, passed away six years ago. I think of Nick and Shoes in tandem not because of this though, that’s just sad coincidence, but because the first five years of his life were spent upstairs in a house Nick and my sister Beck and I shared and where Shoes was born all small and squirmy and orangey in a large toweled cardboard box world with human hovering in a small attic storage space between our two bedrooms after we had been adopted by his stray pregnant Mom.
If I couldn’t find Shoes for any reason back then I needed look no further than Nick’s lap or cat messing with his sister Cal in Nick’s room (the kitten Nick kept as his own) and it was Nick who first came about calling him Shoey, which I think if he could have talked, he would have said was his preferred designation, well, he might not have used the word designation, I mean, he was a cat, not sure if the vocabulary would have extended as far as to include ‘designation’, but ….
So my So then Sunday look back to older posts becomes a So then Shoey Sunday this week … and Happy Birthday Nick.
This was a post that took me quite some time to get right back then or at least right for me. And yes, I know that many of you have already been there done that with this one but, well, reminders are reminders.
A bit of a Seussian thing.
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(from February 2019)
For three plus years now I’ve had this single line rattling round my noggin, bumping into shit. “A Boy And His Cat In A Cone Plastic Hat.” A Dr Seussian type line that has never let me be (hopefully no disservice to the Doc here). I’ve written thousands of words around it in my head over these years as I remember Shoes and the walks he and I would take around the drive/roadway and parking lots that circled our apartment complex during his last month or so. It was a time for me that was as equally heartbreaking as it was wondrous. I know I’ve brought up Shoes often, so much so that it may seem tired, but he was one of those friends that needs be remembered and brought up often for what he was. A reminder of who we are. A reminder of what is/was true. I think, maybe, I’ve finally got this down now. Bear with me.
A Boy And His Cat In A Cone Plastic Hat
There was a boy and his cat in a cone plastic hat
Who found themselves walking this way and way that
In circles round home on a night by night trip
He talkin’ cat list’nin’
At a calm peaceful clip
You see
The boy’s cat in this cone plastic hat was not well
And the boy he had many long stories to tell
To his dearest of friends of 11 grand years
But trying to do so without shedding his tears
So they walked and he talked on these perfect (s) of nights
Allowing this cat in the cone plastic hat
Some flights
Footed outside
For the first time in his life
A gift from the boy to this cat’s great delight
And the cat in the cone plastic hat listened just right
Though now minus one ear from a Doctor’s need stop
The other had might
Enough to catch stories spun high in the air
By his boy who he followed with great love and great care
Along their way they passed people and pets
Both large and both small
To the cat in the cone plastic hat though
They were all tall
But he came to grow big as they petted and gushed
With attention he loved
As they marveled his gifts to walk with no rush
With his boy who just smiled some big hearty hugs
This cat in the cone plastic hat waited by day
For the sound of boy’s car
To home come from what seemed so
So far
Far away
To make
Way
Stairs
Down,
No dilly
No dally
As time for him now was no longer an ally
You see
The cat in the cone plastic hat knew he hadn’t this time
He wanted their friendship to grow and to shine
And for this shortest of moments
In the grandness of things
They would stride steady together with the greatness of kings
It was stories of boy that were of utmost import
In walks round their round he would offer support
While cat sniffing cat checking
Getting caught in the brush
His cone plastic hat it was flush
Filled with tales flung way far
That dearly so meant
So,
So so much
There was even a day
This cat in the cone plastic hat
Got chance just to play
And to lead while, of course, always knowing the way
Minus his hat
Oh glorious day
Then bringing boy back to that place they called home
Where all with the boy it was always the known
But there were things this cat in the cone plastic hat knew needed be said
Of what would become in his absence of stead
Of what boy would do after the gone
Where time it would shorten but still feel so
Long
The cat in the cone plastic hat knew just what
What knew of just such
What knew sure of be that too long
A day
To help him stay strong
To make it not much
He’d say
Goodbye
He thought
In life’s wonder of walks
This cat who was now at in his cone plastic hat
But remembering time where this wasn’t just that
When play was a shoelace tossed long and just right
For wondrous of times and of silly fun fights
Of a mouse down to chase
Or a titter hand tat
And all while wearing no such special hat
But paw forward he would
This way and way that
His best boy in the world as well as he could
To friends who he knew he should
Surely point true
To others in fur and some so in skin
But still remind them that his name was Shoes
Always Shoes
You see
He resides now in heart held so very so strong
Of a nightstand’s still perch
Sensing short winded nightmares long
So sudden jerks
To come down and so sweetly lay to boy’s left
To calm him to know that all was still well
That there would still be so many more stories to tell
That there will always be some more to be said
Now sleep just go back
“We’re hittin’ the rack”
As you always would say
Ahead of tomorrow’s a brand new grand day
Rest your boy head
The begin has its end but ends beg begin … always
Get some sleep for right now
At least
My dearest of friends
frankenberrysattic.com 
