Wednesday morning, while David was on a 2-day-business trip in Houston, I received an email from Kerstin, a very good friend of mine from my Switzerland days, informing me that Cassie died that day before.
Some of you did and some of you did not know Cassie, so I will tell you a little about her. Cassie was a female, sealpoint colored Himalayan cat (click to open in new tab), who joined my life in 1995 when I was living in Melbourne. I got her while shopping around together with Ute, who, at that time, did not know that soon enough all three of us would be sharing a house in Williamstown/Melbourne. But we did for over a year and in the end were joined by Lisa, Ute’s daughter. Ute always told me that whenever Lisa was crying, Cassie usually was the first one by her bed, looking very accusingly at Ute asking with her big blue eyes: ‘What took you so long to get here?!’ We were a pretty happy family.
When I moved to Atlanta, it went without saying that Cassie had to come. She did not like the flight at all. Can I blame her?! Of course not! A colleague of mine took care of her during the stopover in L.A. before I could pick her up at airport customs in Atlanta. Hah – I couldn’t see her when I walked in the door, but I heard her ;-)! It took a little for her to settle back into her usual self, and just when she did we moved back to Germany. Big improvement for her, I had an apartment 1) with a balcony that she could use and 2) with biiig windows and window sills to look outside into the world. After a few years the next move was on the doorstep. But no flying this time, because it was ‘only’ Switzerland. The first apartment was great! But did not have a balcony – bummer! So, after only about a year or two I moved into a different one, which catered better to Cassie’s need. Providing a cat-safe balcony and very old open timber-framing (the house dated back to the 17th century), which, much to my dismay, she sometimes abused for claw sharpening… Unfortunately, also her long hair stuck nicely to the timber and walls. Which may have been the reason that I developed an allergy against cat’s hair over the course of the years. As most of you know, this was the time that David entered my life. And unlike my mild allergy, David’s allergy towards cat’s hair is something else! Despite this fact he bravely continued to visit me in Switzerland, using lots of antihistamins each and every weekend.
When we decided in 2005 to move together, it was pretty obvious that I had to decide between Cassie and David. That was a very tough one. An obvious one, but still very tough. But I was very, very (!) lucky. Through Kerstin, I got in contact with Nancy, who just had lost her cat a little while ago. And when she heard about my dilemma, she agreed to ‘have a look at Cassie’. Having a look at Cassie meant to look into those huge, big blue eyes of her. And I knew, no one could really resist those. And right I was, Nancy fell for her charm. And I truly believe that everyone of us three was very lucky. I was lucky for the first 10 years to have had Cassie as my friend. Nancy was lucky to have her for the next 6 years. And Cassie, after flying around the whole world with me, staying indoors all the time and only seeing me at nights and on the weekends, finally settled down with the family she deserved, who was there all day and who could also let her explore the great outdoors. Which, so I have been told by Kerstin, she enjoyed very much.
So, while I am very sad that Cassie is gone, I am very happy that she had such a good life with her second family. Thank you, Nancy! Here are a few photos of Cassie. The only ones I have.
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