Farewell to the Skeet!

No, this isn't Dexter, though it looks a lot like him! Say hi to Dexter's brother Skeeter, also known as Skeet, or Skeeter the Greeter, because he loves to greet people at the front door.

One of my closest friends, whom I've known since the mid-1980s, retired a few years ago, and she and her husband and their two cats are in the process of moving out of the State College area and into their new home in Asheville, North Carolina. Celia is the fur-peep-mom to my Dexter's brother Skeeter, who appears in this photo (and in one prior Blip).

Celia and her husband have been moving gradually over the past year. They hope to pack up the remaining items in their State College house in the coming week or two and finalize their move. Of course, they will need to take the cats along too! Skeeter and his little orange buddy J.D. will be medicated for the trip, which is just under 600 miles (mapquest gives me a travel time estimate of a bit more than 9 hours). That's a long ride for a pair of cats!

I have lunch regularly with "the old gang" of people that I used to work with. They are all retired now but me. I miss them so, but once a month or so, we get together over lunch and catch up. And maybe once a year, my oldest sister and I visit with Skeet (and Celia!) when my sister comes to visit in the summer for Arts Festival.

My sister is the one who facilitated Tabby adoptions by Celia and myself six years ago. The three little white-pawed Tabby boys - the third one lives with a friend of my sister's in Harrisburg - were born in a box in one of my sister's houses in the Harrisburg area.  And she still takes care of JR, the tiny little six- or seven-pound Tabby who is the mama to these big boys (each of whom weighs in the neighborhood of 20 pounds).

Anyway, that's the back story. My husband and I wanted to stop by and visit with Skeet before he moves to the South and becomes a southern tabby, with a drawl and all. ("Meow, you-all!") And so we did that on this day, stopping by to visit for a little less than an hour, hanging out with Skeet and his family. As you might imagine, I took many pictures.

It is very strange and interesting to visit with Skeet, as he so much resembles my Dexter, and yet in some ways they are so distinctive in their differences. I catch myself wanting to call Skeet by the endearments that I reserve for Dexter. They are clearly brothers.

As a sidebar, my friend also gifted me on this day with two boxes: her father's collection of several non-digital SLR cameras and gear. Her dad was a geologist who published quite a few books, and he used his own cameras to do the photography for them. Her dad passed away in 2006, at the age of 95. Some of his cameras have the feeling of having been heavily used. I can almost sense his hands upon them. I have to tell you it was a very strange feeling to handle another photographer's cameras.

It made me think about myself, about my future, about my own ending. And it was with a great wistful feeling that I thought of my own cameras passing from my hands. I can't even imagine the day when I will lay them down for the very last time. Time passes; things change; the world marches on. Perhaps I will photograph an item or two from his collection for future Blips. I'll think about that. But I digress . . . I was talking about cats.

I've told my friend Celia that there is still time to change her mind about leaving the area - as I have just a few close friends and a good friend is hard to come by - but she just laughs when I say that. She is ready to move on to a new phase of her life, to a new place. And of course the cats MUST go too. I looked at Skeet, petted him, talked to him, admired his pink toepads . . . and felt a little bit sad. While I will see my friend Celia occasionally when she comes back for visits a few times a year, it is possible that we may never see Skeet again. He won't be traveling with her when she comes to town.

And while my husband and I used to visit the South every year back in our early years (he being a Gator, having obtained his undergrad degree at the University of Florida), we haven't been back in many years. So it's somewhat unlikely - though not impossible - that I would visit Skeet again anytime soon in his new home. So this might have been our actual lifetime farewell to Skeeter. (I hope not.)

Go well, dear Tabby brother, who looks so much like the white-pawed Tabby who rules my heart. (At their first vet visits, Skeet was dubbed "most white on toes" by the vet, while Dexter was "least white on toes." Something about that amuses me still.) Best wishes for a happy rest-of-your-life. Purrs and head-bonks, dear boy. Behave for your fur-peep-mom. I'll hope to see photos and receive updates regularly. Be good and keep those pinkee toepads clean!

The song to accompany this photo of Dexter's brother Skeeter is a real treat. Two guitar legends on the very same stage. The tune is a Dire Straits classic, Brothers in Arms, and in this version, Mark Knopfler and the gang are joined by Eric Clapton. The occasion was Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday, and the performance occurred at Wembley Stadium in 1988. Enjoy!