Mottle (1985-2003)

I like to say that Mottle is the best cat on the planet -- other cat-owners often give me grief about this, but it's true! The best combination of purr-at-slightest-provocation, and softness, and lap-sitting. Some people think she is just a lump, but she really does like you best when you are holding her in your lap. Other people think she is a slut, but she is just friendly!

My housemate Valerie writes,

Mottle, was killed by a car on Massapoag Avenue sometime in the wee hours of September 13, 2003. Mottle was about 19 years old and was in failing health with kidney problems and diabetes. The location was farther from our house than Mottle has wandered in months. Judy hypothesizes that Mottle was "looking for a place to die". In any case, presumably this end was more merciful than some of the other possibilities.

Mottle came into Judy's life by coming through the cat door of her California home with one foreleg stuck through her collar and a wound in her "armpit" where the collar had rubbed her. Judy took her to the vet and a relationship which lasted for nearly two decades was begun. Mottle chose her rescuer well.

Among the three black cats that used to inhabit Jack's Place, Mottle was known as "the cat that is good with children", a sobriquet which was well earned. There is a photograph of Mottle draped bonelessly over the forearms of a visiting toddler, who looks up at the camera with the already-answered question on his lips: "Is this the cat that's good with children?" Mottle was rather feeble by the time our twins were born, but she suffered their over-enthusiastic patting and their vigorous grabbing of her tail, ears, fur, whiskers and paws with her usual gentleness and patience. She made no effort to avoid them, frequently came up to them, and never tried to run away from them. Yet neither of the babies ever felt her teeth or claws or heard her growl.

We will miss her.