# In Loving Memory of Salem



## Magnus89 (Jul 20, 2009)

I lost my first boy, Salem (jet black domestic shorthair) when he was at only just three years of age, and I would like to share a small piece of his life with you all. 

He was born in July of 2004 in a friend of my father’s back yard in Warroad, MN. They needed somebody to take a kitten off of their hands and she asked if I might like to have one of them – the runt, specifically as he needed special care that I had the time to provide being a fourteen year old and out of school for the summer. We went and picked him up the very next day, and I fell in love with him the first time I laid eyes on him. I knew he wasn’t nearly eight weeks then, closer to four actually – didn’t even quite fit in my hand, and I could carry him with me in my shirt’s breast pocket (he loved bike rides with me at this time!). But I didn’t care that he wasn’t the biggest or even the most pretty of the litter, but he did grow into a handsome young man all the same. He had the most beautiful blue and green streaks throughout his amber eyes... and this is why I named him Salem, because they reminded me of magic.

When my visit was ended abruptly on bad terms with my father's room mate (no fault of my own, it had always gone this way in my only 3 visits), it was just him and me on the plane all the 2,000 miles in that tiny seat back to California, and I was glad to have him with me. I was upset because of how I’d had to leave my father’s so soon, and I knew that I would likely never see him again after that (and I was right). I also almost lost Salem that day as well, because they wouldn’t board him without a vet’s say so... it was just in the nick of time that his room mate came rushing in with him before the final boarding call. Needless to say, we bonded especially closely throughout this experience - he only wanted to console me and I wanted to do the same. 

For the next three years, his life was a good one. He unfortunately learned how to use the dog door at around age one by our resident dog, and this was fine and even safe, at the time – he always came back in after a couple of hours of night-time strolling and lay with me the rest of the night until I woke up, usually in my arms or by my head.

But during the night before the day I was to attain my first driver’s license, and was spending most of my time studying so that I would definitely not fail, he had went out and he didn’t come back home that night like he usually did. I thought nothing of this, as that is what indoor/outdoor cats do from time to time, although he never had before. So I went to my behind the wheel exam and passed at 100%. I was so excited, I had unintentionally forgotten about Salem not coming home the previous night. 

It wouldn’t be until two days after this that I really began to worry about him – there was a heat wave going on, averaging over 100 degrees all day and night. So I walked up and down my neighborhood calling out his name (he ALWAYS came when called) and wouldn’t stop until I couldn’t go on anymore. It was a further three days until I knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t be returning home... and I was shattered.

I remember screaming to God, “IF YOU CAN’T BRING HIM BACK TO ME AT LEAST GIVE ME BACK SOMETHING OF HIM!” – The very next morning my step dad found his collar and tag laying by our front fence leading to the back yard - and they told me and I completely melted down then. He said it was open – not closed and there were distinct indentations similar to teeth markings on the bells of it, and I believe there to have been dried blood on it, but can’t be sure because it is maroon. I will never know for sure what happened that night he disappeared and it hurts more than anything knowing that he likely suffered the way that he did and that I was unable to give him a proper burial. I feel as though I failed him and I still feel responsible for his death, even though I know in my heart that there was nothing I could have done – he would still have gotten out some other way, it was his nature – and if he didn’t, he would have been very unhappy. He was a tom cat, although fixed, roaming was his passion and I couldn’t take that away from him.

Every night since, I still feel his presence when I am falling asleep. It was our nightly ritual, the time that we bonded the most. And I will never forget or stop loving him until the day that I join him in eternal rest, along with his baby brother (Onyx, born October ’07) and sister (Mirage, born July ’08).


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

What a beautiful eulogy for your Salem. I've got boo-hoos in my eyes after reading such a sweet story.
I am sorry for your loss, atback 
heidi


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

What a lovely post. It seems certain animals come into our lives just when we need them the most. I'm glad you and Salem were there for each other during those times.

There's something special about black kitties, isn't there? :blackcat


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

Sometimes, although you love all of your pets, one becomes very special. My Pixie was black also, and for a long time after she died, I was sure I felt her jump up on the bed, as she always had. When we love them that much, their memories are with us all of the time. I'm sure that your sweet Salem and you will be together again. Until then, try to remember the happy times, and enjoy his visits. God bless.


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