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Remembering Seren with Holiday Sparkles, A Cat-Mas Story

by | Dec 20, 2022 | Cat Behavior & Care | 35 comments

Remembering Seren

Seren arrived at a time we’d been pet-less for many years. A friend called to tell me she’d found a kitten–and could I help? The wannabe Siamese baby climbed up my leg, wrapped her chocolate paws around my neck, and purred her way into my heart. It was, indeed, Serendipity that we found each other.

That was more than two decades ago. She inspired my cat writing, hated and finally tolerated “that !@#$%!!!-dawg” when Magic arrived (and outweighed her even as a pup!). And Seren tolerated and ultimately loved her pesky cat brother, Karma. Seren’s tiny frame packed a powerful presence for over 21 years, and now the house echoes with her absence. We mourn, oh how we mourn . . .

Pet Loss–Again

We’ve been through pet grief already this year when we lost Magic. The tears just won’t stop. And now I’ve added more verses to Magic’s song:

A thousand tears I shed each night
Since Seren left that bitter day,
She took away a special light
And turned my world to gray.

If we could, you know we’d fight
To keep her near just one more day.
But clinging love can’t make it right
We let her go, she couldn’t stay.

Swift sweet joy, condensed delight,
Great love is magnified that way.
The years sped by, we couldn’t fight
The deal we made, we had no say.

In time the tears I shed each night
Will shimmer bright, I pray.
For all who mourn love out of sight
Sweet memory holds sway.

For those also hurting, here’s a post on dealing with pet loss that may help.   

And in honor of my tiny girl’s beginning with us, it seemed appropriate to once again share this story about her early days with us.

HOLIDAY SPARKLES: A CAT-MAS STORY

SerenCrash-galumph-galumph-skiiiiiiid-thump!

“Amy! Will you please get your cat before she tears up the house?”

I sighed, and pushed away from the computer. My husband grew up cat-less. Mahmoud neither understood nor appreciated kitten antics, especially while he watched television sports.

Crash-galumph-galumph-skiiiiiiid-thump!

“Ameeeeeeee!”

By the sound of it, the eight-month-old delinquent had donned virtual racing stripes. She ran laps that traversed the carpeted living room and family room, slid across the oak floor entry, bumped down steps to the dining room, then finished with a claw-scrabbling turn around the slate-tiled kitchen.

Thumpa-thumpata-thumpa-THUMP!

Aha, a new path discovered . . . The sound grew louder as she raced toward me up the stairs and flew down the hallway to land tippy-toed on the guest bed across the hall from my office. I peeked inside.

Seren(dipity) stared back with blue-jean-colored eyes. Then she self-inflated in mock terror and began trampoline calisthenics (boing-boing-boing) on the mattress.

I quickly shut the door, confining the demon seed–my husband’s name for her–to my upstairs domain.

Back in June, a friend discovered the dumped kitten napping in an empty flowerpot on the back porch and called me, her pet-writer buddy, for help. I had been pet-less for longer than I cared to admit. E-mail, phone and fax lines kept me connected to my clients and colleagues, but I figured the kitten would brighten the long, sometimes lonely workdays. Besides, as a pet writer I needed a pet. So it was Amy-to-the-rescue, and love at first sight.

My husband wasn’t so easily smitten. He still missed our elderly and sedate German shepherd but cherished the freedom of being pet-less. I convinced him a lap-snuggling kitten would be no trouble. Besides, the cream-color carpet he’d chosen matched the color of Seren’s fur. It had to be an omen.

The cat gods have a wicked sense of humor. They made me pay for that fib.

The Siamese wannabe had no off-switch. She talked nonstop and demanded the last word. She opened drawers and explored kitchen cabinets. She answered my office phone but never took messages. And she left legions of sparkle ball toys everywhere.

The colorful toys polka-dotted the stairs. You’d think a peacock threw up. The toys floated in the kitten’s water bowl, swirled in the toilet, and bobbed in my coffee cup. And Seren hid sparkle balls everywhere to later stalk and paw-capture them from beneath household appliances.

Mahmoud quickly learned to check his shoes each morning before putting them on. He was not amused. I knew better than to suggest he should be grateful Seren only stuffed his shoes with sparkle balls and not–ahem–other items.

I’d managed to buffer the cat-shock-effect over the past months by keeping her in my office during the day and wearing Seren out with lots of games before Mahmoud came home from work. Weekends proved a challenge. By Monday morning, my husband reached his kitty threshold and welcomed a return to the cat-free-zone at work.

But now the holidays loomed. Mahmoud looked forward to two weeks at home, two weeks of relaxation, two weeks of napping on the couch in front of the TV.

Two weeks sharing the house with “the devil.”

It would indeed be a Christmas miracle if we survived with sense of humor intact.

In the past we’d often visited my folks over the holidays where we enjoyed a traditional snowy Indiana Christmas morning, stocking stuffers, decorated tree, lots of relatives, and a sumptuous turkey dinner. This year we planned a quiet celebration at home in Texas, so snow wasn’t an option. But I wanted to decorate with lots of holiday sparkles to make the season as festive as possible.

“A Christmas tree? Don’t cats climb trees?” Mahmoud’s you-must-be-insane expression spoke volumes. He’d already blamed Seren for dumping his coffee on the cream-colored carpet. Maybe matching fur color wasn’t such a great omen after all.

But ‘tis the season of peace on earth, and I wanted to keep the peace–and the cat. So I agreed. No tree.

Mahmoud didn’t particularly care if we decorated at all since Christmas isn’t a part of his cultural or religious tradition. But he knew I treasured everything about the holidays. So we compromised.

Gold garland with red velvet poinsettias festooned the curving staircase, wrapping around and around the banisters and handrail. Gold beads draped the fireplace mantel, with greeting cards propped above. A red cloth adorned the dining room table, while in the living room, the candelabra with twelve scented candles flickered brightly from inside the fireplace. Other candles in festive holders decorated the several end tables, countertops and the piano.

The centerpiece of Christmas décor was the large glass-top coffee table placed midway between the fireplace, TV and the leather sofa. The wooden table base carried puppy teeth marks, silent reminders of the dog Mahmoud and I still mourned. Since we had no tree, the table served to display brightly wrapped packages that fit underneath out of the way. And on top of the table I placed Grandma’s lovely three-piece china nativity of Mary, Joseph and the Baby in the manger.

Grandma died several years before, right after the holidays. Each family member was encouraged to request something of hers to keep as a special remembrance, and I treasured Grandma’s nativity. The simple figurines represented not only the Holy Family but evoked the very essence of Grandma and every happy family holiday memory.

Of course, Seren created her own memories and put her paw into everything. It became her purpose in life to un-festoon the house. She “disappeared” three of the faux poinsettias, risked singed whiskers by sniffing candles, and stole bows off packages.

She decided the red tablecloth set off her feline beauty. She lounged in the middle of the table beneath the Tiffany-style shade that doubled as a heat lamp, shedding tiny hairs onto the fabric. As every cat lover eventually learns, fur is a condiment. But Mahmoud had not yet joined the cat-lover ranks and was not amused.

“Off! Get off the table. Amy, she’ll break your glass lampshade.”

Crash-galumph-galumph-skiiiiiiid-thump!

Mahmoud had no sooner resettled onto the sofa to watch the TV when the whirling dervish hit again. The twinkling gold beads dangling from the mantel caught her predatory attention. Seren stalked them from below, quickly realized she couldn’t leap that high, and settled for pouncing onto the top of the TV. From there, only a short hop separated her from the ferocious mantel quarry she’d targetted.

“Off! Get off the TV. Amy, will you come get your cat?”

Crash-galumph-galumph-skiiiiiiid-thump!

I arrived in time to see her complete a second Mario Andretti lap. I swear she grinned at us as she skidded past. With the next drive-by Seren stopped long enough to grab my ankle, execute a ten-second feline headstand while bunny-kicking my calves, then resumed her mad dash around the house.

Mahmoud glared. “I thought you said cats sleep sixteen hours a day.”

I shrugged and hid a smile. Seren had already learned what buttons to push. Rattling the wooden window blinds worked extremely well, but now she need only eye the decorations to garner all the attention she craved.

Cute kitty. Smart kitty. Mahmoud wasn’t amused, but I was.

She raced into the living room, leaped onto the glass top table, and belly-flopped alongside my treasured Holy Family . . .

“Off! Get off.” Mahmoud shooed the kitten out of the danger zone before I could react in shock. This time, I was not amused.

Mahmoud knew what Grandma’s nativity meant to me. “Decorating was your idea. Don’t blame me if the devil breaks something,” he warned.

Before he could suggest it, I caught the miscreant and gave her a time out in the laundry room to cool her jets. We’d relegated Seren’s potty, food bowls and bed to this room and routinely confined her at night or when away. Otherwise, she set off motion detectors and the house alarm–or dismantled the house while we slept. Besides, Mahmoud complained Seren’s purring kept him awake at night.

I used a wooden yardstick to fish toys from beneath the washer/dryer to provide necessary feline entertainment during the incarceration. Several dozen sparkle balls–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple–and the three missing faux poinsettias emerged, along with an assortment of dust bunnies and dryer lint.

I sighed. The kitten’s age meant several more months of madcap activity and I wasn’t sure how much more Mahmoud could take. He only saw Seren at full throttle. He also suffered from “Saint Spot Syndrome” which meant he recalled only the happy memories of our beloved dog, and overlooked potty accidents, chewed shoes and other normal canine misbehaviors of the past.

Seren suffered mightily in the comparison.

I felt exhausted after the first week of running vacation interference between my husband and the kitten. Whenever possible I kept Seren confined with me in my upstairs office but that backfired. She slept in my office, but once downstairs she turned into a dynamo intent on pick-pick-picking at Mahmoud especially when he ignored her.

The second week began, and as Christmas drew near I found more and more errands that required my attention outside of the house. Mahmoud came with me for some, but other times he preferred TV.

“Just lock up the devil before you leave so she doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I don’t want to watch her.”

It made me nervous to leave them alone together in the house. I worried that Seren might commit some last straw infraction and I’d be unable to salvage any potential relationship. I loved her, heaven help me; she’d hooked her claws deep into my heart. And I loved Mahmoud. I wanted my two loves to at least put up with each other.

But as I prepared to leave I couldn’t find her. At less than five pounds, Seren could hide in the tiniest spaces. One time I found her inside the box springs of the guest bed, but that day–December 23rd–she disappeared and refused to come out of hiding.

I think she planned it. Maybe the spirit of the holidays inspired her. Or perhaps some other loving canine (or grandmotherly) influence worked its Christmas magic. Whatever the motivation, when I returned home that rainy December evening, my unspoken holiday wish had been granted.

nativityI found my husband napping on the sofa. On the glass-top table beside him, the Holy Family nested in a radiance of sparkle balls—an inspired feline gift of toys for a very special Child.

And atop Mahmoud’s chest, quiet at last, rested a very happy kitten.

Mahmoud roused enough to open one eye. “Fafnir–I mean Seren still purrs too loud,” he grumbled.

Fafnir had been the name of our dog.

With a nod toward the overcast day, Mahmoud added, “At least our cat won’t need to be walked in the rain.”

Seren blinked blue-jean-colored eyes and purred louder.

cat christmas anthologyNote: The story first appeared in a short story collection titled Christmas Cats: A Literary Companion (Chamberlain Bros. Publishing). You can also find it in the new anthology, The Cat in the Christmas Tree (Revell Publishing). May your Christmas be joyous, bright, and filled with loving woofs and purrs of those still with you, and those who live on in your heart.

You may also enjoy my annual Christmas Eve story of Why Tabby Cats Wear an “M”

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35 Comments

  1. Bonnie T,

    I just read this – again! Loved it the first time, love it even more now. My Tigger will be 18 next month; hoping to have him around for a few more years.

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Thanks Bonnie–and my best to you and Tigger!

      Reply
  2. Christine Davis

    Oh, Amy, I’m very sorry to hear about the loss of Seren, so soon after losing Magic. They lived good, long lives—but it’s never long enough, is it? I’m keeping you in my heart and prayers. Much love…Chris

    Reply
  3. Sweet Purrfections

    I LOVE this story and your special memories. It’s been a rough year for you but I’m praying the future is brighter. My thoughts are with you as you grieve your beautiful kitty.

    Reply
  4. K.B. Owen

    What a wonderful story! I’ve never had the joy-ahem-craziness of a kitten (our Tora was a 2yr old rescue when we got her), but Christmas decorations bring out the mischievous in the most sedate kitty! Tora routinely wipes out half the shepherds and Holy Family every night. Fortunately, our manger sets are indestructible resin!

    I’m so sorry that you had to say goodbye to Seren, especially right after Magic-Dawg. Hugs.

    Reply
  5. Gail

    Again, so sorry for your loss. It is so difficult when our furry babies cross the Rainbow Bridge. I lost my two Cairn Terriers three months apart when they were almost 18. So I understand just how you are feeling.

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Oh Gail, so very sorry for your loss–18 is a long life for a dog-friend. But it always seems too short. Thank you for your kind words.

      Reply
  6. Beth

    I’m so sorry for your loss, but so glad to have read this story! I knew Seren was special, but I didn’t realize how she wiggled her way into your husband’s heart.

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Thanks Beth. Seren was quite a character! She’s the one taught my husband that cats are “good people, too.”

      Reply
  7. tonkstail

    Oh no, I’m so very sorry, Amy….

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      She was very special, thank you for your kind words.

      Reply
  8. Karyl

    Oh Amy, not Seren too! *hugs*

    Reply
  9. Patricia

    Amy I loved this story so much. Seren has to be one of the most beautiful cats I’ve ever seen. M has come a long way in his love for pets. BTW your grandmother’s nativity is stunningly beautiful! I know that means so much to you. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family. Hugs to all.

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Thank you Patricia! May you have a joyous and wonderful holiday this year!

      Reply
  10. Wayne Borean

    I love that story. Thanks for reposting it!

    Wayne

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Hi Wayne,

      Yes, I think it may become an annual post. *s*

      Reply
  11. Sharon

    What a lovely story!

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Hi Sharon, thanks so much for visiting the blog!

      Reply
  12. Brenda

    Love this! (And now I see it is the Siamese in our Samantha who can even a year after her rescue be at the other end of the house before you can say, “she’s in the….”)

    Merry Christmas!

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Thank you Brenda. Seren still moves pretty darn fast for a 17-year-old!

      Reply
  13. Mike Bacon

    How does your husband handle Magical Dawg and Karma? Or has he resigned himself to the pets?

    Love this story!

    Reply
    • Amy Shojai

      Hi Mike, Oh…he’s completely corrupted now and ADORES the pets! And thank goodness, they love him back. However, I’m still the “pet medication” and “scooper designate” in the house. *s*

      Reply
  14. Susan Richardson-Cripps

    Hi Amy!
    I also have a crazy cat, Sammy, who runs around our home lurking in corners waiting to attack me. He seems to forget I am the one who rescued him, but he brings me great joy. There is never a dull moment when Sammy is around. Maybe Mom has told you about him. Enjoyed the article and the pictures of the nativity.

    Reply
    • amyshojai

      Ha! Yes, I’ve heard a bit about Sammy. But the crazy-kitty fun is one reason we love them. 🙂

      Reply
  15. Jay Holmes

    Thanks for a soothing story Amy. That was nice. Happy holidays to all.

    Reply
    • amyshojai

      Hi Jay, Happy Holidays to you, too. We need some soothing today I think. . .

      Reply
  16. Leslie

    What a lovely story! I miss my Siamese kitty but we have two new boys who are keeping us every bit as busy. I bet husband and cat are thick as thieves now.

    Reply
    • amyshojai

      Hi Leslie–yes, he and Seren have long “conversations” together now. *s*

      Reply
  17. donnagalanti

    Amy, I ADORE this story! Funny, sweet, and I can relate. Well, my husband fell in love with my cats sooner than he did me…but we have “Destructo Kitties” now who believe the world is their playground. Socks, underwear, son’s toys, Christmas ornaments…it’s all theirs to steal and run off with. You may find again, or you may not…they eat the strangest things (including having a fetish for eating earplugs!) So glad you husband came around to love your kitty. We must banish the cats from the downstairs at Christmas time now. But they have the entire upstairs and storage room to romp around in. Nothing gets broken and they still have a playground to toss, chew and tumble with upstairs. They miss us. But we visit often and they’ll be back Jan. 2!

    Reply
    • amyshojai

      Hi Donna, sounds like a great work-around for the kitties. Eating earplugs? Oh no! Cats often seem drawn to Q-tips (used ones, ew!) we think because of the aroma and also the protein “schtuff” left behind on ’em. I hadn’t thought of ear buds but it makes sense. Such kitties turn us into better house keepers, picking things up, LOL!

      Reply
      • donnagalanti

        Please dont get me started on my son’s balloons! (you know the really long ones they use to make balloon animals with?) Eaten by Destructo Kitty! But the balloons were so long they..ahem…were an extra decorative tail coming out at the “end” we had to pull out! Ick.

        Reply
        • amyshojai

          Ewwww! And ick! and DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! Anything eaten that comes halfway out can be a danger. Glad it passed okay.

          Reply
  18. patodearosen

    Oh! Love the story and its happy ending. The photo of your grandmother’s nativity scene with its gifts of sparkle balls captures the spirit of the season for me. Thank you.

    Reply
    • amyshojai

      🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting. We do now put the Nativity on the mantel out of reach to avoid potential disaster…the dog’s toys are more dangerous than sparkle balls.

      Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. 2021 New Year Goals--from the Pets: Keep Hope Alive! - […] despite her tiny size, Seren ran our house and hearts with a benevolent paw. Read about her Christmas gift…
  2. Pets Adoption Days: Cats & Dog Weird & Wonderful Timing - […] have no doubt that Seren-Kitty lived to be almost 22 years old (passing the end of November 2017). Karma…
  3. How to Deal with Pet Loss Grief: Love Lives Forever - […] We lost Seren-Kitty on November 30, 2017. She didn’t quite make it to her 22nd birthday, and now Karma is…

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