Désirée (Miss Kitty)

We put our cat to sleep last night. We adopted her from the Pets Alive shelter here in Austin on August 29, 2016. She seemed close to two years old then and was diagnosed feline leukemia positive. 

She was an indoor cat. She was content to be in her own space. She liked to sit on her tower and watch the street. She did hang out on the porch, often under it. A couple of times, she got through the fence to the neighbor's yard; and a couple of times she jumped into our front yard. The most interesting moment was when she was nowhere to be found in the house or in back. We found her in the front yard. But the front window screen was secured. Apparently, she pushed her way out and it snapped back into place behind her. 

She came into my office every morning to be petted. Then I would feed her while I made my coffee. At night, she sat with us and watched TV. 

The shelter listed her as Desiree. I liked the name for the 1954 film biography of Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary that starred Jean Simmons with Marlon Brando as Napoleon Bonaparte and Michael Rennie as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Laurel called her Miss Kitty, which was also okay with me for the Gunsmoke leading lady played by Amanda Blake. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Only a Cat

Mortality

Reflections on the Passing of a Comrade