HORACE THE GREAT

OCTOBER 1996 -0CT0BER 7TH 2013

 

By Nina

 

That magical cat

Bowlegged Wobblejon with the white tuxedo

And OCD.

The cat who hung out with crackheads and smackheads,

Beat off Toms twice his size,

Survived an abusive back-smashing

Jealous boyfriend.

Let me know right from

Day1 he would follow me

Anywhere.

Everyone laughed at the cat

Who thought he was a

Dog

But he knew better than they,

The most profound and faithful of friends.

My neighbour said, 'How come he always

Knows ten minutes before you'll be home?

Waiting on the doormat - day or night.

Not a normal cat.'

No, not a normal cat.

Relocated to Scotland, didn't blink twice

At minus degrees, weeks of snow and ice

He ate his tail when I went to LA.

That takes commitment.

So the next time, we went together

Over the Atlantic,

Him in a wooden box surrounded by

Suitcases and propeller engines

For fourteen hours.

But he loved the sunshine state.

His tail grew back healthy and bushy.

He was still an eater most fussy.

My dear, dear friend.

He would have stayed alive,

Fought cancer til he was carrion

To keep me company …

The flies and crows gathered in the sky

But he let himself be held

While he died.

He forgot all pain as long as

I wouldn't leave him alone.

He also told me, throughout those

Seventeen years,

He'd always wait for me til I got home.