The cat visits: Making the rounds for Marcie

Marcie enjoyed walking all over our neighborhood and even in Kensington from time to time. She loved the shady passages, old Craftsman homes and the winding, calm roads.

But truth be told, she was in it for the cats.

Our neighborhood is overflowing with cats of all shapes and sizes, colors and patterns. Marcie loved nothing more than to find a new feline friend to play with for a few minutes. The kitties definitely were beguiled, to the very last one.

A particular week of chemotherapy had been very rough on Marcie, and she was pretty exhausted. She looked at me as I prepared for a quick run.

"I wish I could see my kitty friends, but I am just too tired to for a walk today," she said.

I decided a quick run was not the best exercise and, before I left, grabbed my cheap little Emprex camera. I walked the neighborhood far and wide, and I snapped some pictures of her friends.

Cheap or not, the camera had a nice camera-to-rca cable to let me show her the shots on the television.

I caught two of her favorites one day, both "Tuxedo kitties" as she called them. I also snapped a few shots from "creaky kitty" I would learn as she named them all.

Then while preparing for a run at Morley Field, I spied a familiar gray form. The cat looked like the Stoddard's kitty Samantha, who had passed. I took one of her and her friend, which Marcie dubbed "the creamsicle kitty."


What I showed Marcie, (Also featuring Seamus)


She enjoyed her show and was fascinated by the Sam clone and the "creamsicle" cat. But all was not perfect by any means.

I did not capture one very important kitty with my lens, and soon Marcie was asking me to go see her. Cavinia, the last neighborhood kitty Marcie went for a visit to.