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| Photo by Cathy Wilkinson Barash |
47 years ago,
Sebastian came into my life. When we lived in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island,
New York, on a fabulous estate as caretakers, he and I would walk down the hill
to the harbor every day. The first winter it was so cold the harbor froze over
and as things started to thaw, there were ice floes on the beach. He loved
nothing better than to jump on the floe and skid down it onto the beach.
Needless to say, it scared me to bits thinking he might slide into the water
and I'd have to try to save him.
He
gardened with me and was my companion as I wrote my books. He used down to my
basement office if he wasn't already laying in the drawer of my desk, about 11
o'clock at night nudging at me to come upstairs and go to bed. If I ignored him
or told him to go away he come back about 1 o'clock in the morning, more
demanding. One night, as I was working on Edible Flowers from Garden to
Palate, (he even sneaked a taste of recipes I was working on!) on my word
processor, it was 1 o'clock and I ignored him. He jumped up on the keyboard and
managed to delete the chapter I was working on, which included the only copies
of many of the recipes. My stepsister had given me an embroidered pillow that
said "This house is ruled by the cat." How true!. After that, I paid
strict attention to his bedtime suggestions. He was the cover and centerfold
for "Cats in the Garden" calendar and his photo appeared in many of
my books.
As I
was the program chair for the Long Island horticultural Society, over the
years, when we were still living as caretakers on Long Island, I had many of
the GWA (now GardenComm)
members as speakers. They stayed at the house (upstairs in the main house; we
lived in what had been the wing built when the family already four boys and our
landlady, whose husband was pushing for a girl, had twins… a boy and a girl… and
they built the wing we lived in as two bedrooms and a bath for the twins and
their nanny. The kitchen had been a closet; with an undercounter fridge and
tiny oven and bar sink. I should have written a book called Cooking in a
Closet!) It was nice for us as it gave our guests privacy, and then they
could come down and have meals and socialize with us and Sebastian! So
Sebastian became friend with garden writers from all over the country over a
period of about a dozen years!
At age
15, several months after he got his annual rabies vaccination, he came down
with fibrosarcoma at the injection site. Apparently, this occurs in one out of
every 5000 injections. I loved my vet, but she did not have a surgery as she
specialized in house calls. Fortunately, my brother-in-law was a vet and he did
the surgery. Sebastian did well for a year and a half and then the cancer
returned. At that time, I had already committed to moving to Des Moines. My
brother-in-law operated again, but we knew that it could return.
Sebastian
had a great trip to Des Moines. We flew on the Meredith Learjet! Fridays were
bring your pet to work day, and Sebastian loved going into the office. He was
great in the car and rode in the hump above the steering wheel by the
windshield, startling other drivers at times. At work, he really didn't need a
leash, as he knew which floor to walk up to. He got very spoiled with many
people coming into the office to visit him or taking him for walks.
Unfortunately,
after a year and a half, the cancer returned. Several friends had told me to
get in touch with Gail DeScoise, an animal communicator (I knew her husband
Joe, a photographer from GWA). We had several very interesting sessions, and he
said he would be back after two winters. He also said that if I needed feline
companionship in the meantime, I could get a female cat. Sebastian died
peacefully at home.
A
couple of months later I saw a picture of a group of kittens on the bulletin
board at work and that is how Tiarella came into my life. Two years later as
predicted, thanks to Doug Jimerson and Karen Weir-Jimerson, Bogart joined our
family. Five years later, also from the Jimersons, came Pause. Of the trio, he
is still with me, having celebrated his 16th birthday in May, and Itty Bitty
Kitty joined us five years ago. However, Sebastian remains "the cat of my
life"...a true soul mate, who I still miss. Here he is pictured (above)
in the garden in Cold Spring Harbor in his whiskey barrel, which was planted
with catmint, chives, sage, and some other herbs. The whiskey barrel moved with
us to Des Moines!
