"NickCage 2004 – 2006 Beloved pet of Judy and beloved friend of Jake & Liza, the Cairns

While walking my two Cairn Terriers in August, 2004, I passed a “free kittens” sign. One sees these signs all the time in small country towns but this one called to me. I took the pups home and drove back over to the free kitten house. The tiniest ever mother cat had had at least eight kittens. All looked different from one another. I selected a little grey and white one and off we went to the local vet, Dr. Stern, to have the kitten checked out. On the way to the vet, I told the kitten “if you are a girl, you are Madonna; if you are a boy, you are NickCage”. It was a boy!

Nicky was an extraordinary fellow. His most famous photo is in the plum tree in my back yard. Every second of Nicky’s life is captured in photos and / or paintings. The photos are mine; the paintings are by many wonderful artists. Unlike most cats, I could pose Nicky. He would stay wherever I sat him until I moved him to the next set of photo props. I did not, however, place him in the plum tree!

Nick was a house cat but loved to go out into the back yard. He brought “presents” into the house for me frequently so I tried very hard to limit Nick to the inside. The most “special” gift he brought me was on Mother’s Day of 2005 when he was less than a year old. Here came Nick with a live albeit wounded dove in his mouth. The bird was almost as big as Nick. I left the house screaming & horrified. My Cairn, Liza, caught the poor bird. What a lovely (not!) Mother’s Day.

Some months later, my next special gift was a 14 inch garden snake. Boy, was Nicky proud of that present! That was his last early morning romp outside!! Nicky loved my boy Cairn, Jake, better than life itself. As a kitten, Nick would fall asleep as close as possible to Jake. My lovely, sensitive Jake would not move until the kitten woke up. They were quite a pair. I have photos, of course, of the two of them when Nick was a kitten. Jake was as sad as I when Nicky died. Jake and I could not understand.

I loved NickCage like no other cat, dog, or living being. To my disbelief, I arrived home one night to find him dead in his room. He looked so beautiful and so peaceful and so healthy. I put clean towels in a box for Nick to rest on until I could take him to the vet the next morning. An autopsy indicated that he had cardiomyopathy and likely a heart attack. Nick was almost two years old. I will never understand why this beautiful and loving and gentle fellow had such a short life.

It was my joy and my pleasure to have known him and loved him and to have been loved by him. Knowing NickCage changed my life for the better. I will never stop loving him and remembering him. He was like no other.