U is for Uva Ursi

(these are all pictures of pictures. again. the below was taken by my friend lisa hoffman when i was in my 9th month of pregnancy with tashi)



uva ursi was our first child. dan and i picked her up from a cat rescue service around autumn equinox in 1996. a tortoise shell tabby with beautiful markings, she seemed the most feisty of the litter. she won our hearts with her spunk.



we struggled over a name when we got home, while she attempted to climb the lace curtains. i pulled out my herbal tarot deck and our new kitten touched a card with her paw. it was the two of cups card, and the herb represented on it was uva ursi. shortly after choosing her name we received a phone call from dan's family saying his brother tom had been in a terrible bicycle accident. he had a spinal injury that would paralyze him. it was a day we'll never forget. uva ursi was the only bright light that remained on that day.



she was an incredibly social cat. she would sit in front of our house in oakland and greet people that walked by. sometimes she would jump into cars that had just parked. she was not the least bit shy or reticent. one time our neighbor scot had a party and uva followed me there. she was a guest as much as anyone else, showing off with her acrobatics, talking to people, receiving compliments. i was nobody compared to uva ursi.

and what an acrobat she was. we had a fig tree next to our front stoop. she would shoot up the fig tree to the roof of the house in the blink of an eye. for a while she liked to play fetch with a toy mouse i made her. and she was a nuisance too. every morning she would bat at a calendar we had hanging near our bed. we would wake up to the tick, tick, tick as it swung on the wall. uva was a very active child.

when i was pregnant with tashi she loved to hang out on my belly. she was a great companion for my first five months of pregnancy, when dan was india.



uva was very pissed off when we brought tashi home from the hospital. she was extremely territorial and we'd never really seen her angry, except at other cats. she immediately moved up to the top shelf of my closet. when tashi was sleeping she would sneak up to her and smell her toes. if tashi twitched, uva would be up in that closet in the blink of an eye.



she eventually came down and took over the bassinet.



tashi hated that thing anyway and slept with us in bed. uva warmed up to tashi in no time. pretty soon i had both uva and tashi in my lap for most of the day.



sometimes when i would nurse tashi, uva would lick tashi's little newborn scalp. it was such a sweet, protective, nurturing gesture. i was certain a beautiful relationship was blooming.



this is our last photo of uva. she had just gotten to the point where she preferred curling up next to tashi rather than remaining on my lap. tashi was just beginning to reach out to her, to really notice her as another being in residence.



uva wasn't quite two years old when our neighbor amy found her motionless under a tree. there was blood coming out of her mouth. dan rushed her to the emergency vet, but she was gone by the time he arrived. her internal bleeding lead the vet to believe she'd been hit by a car.

dan and i cried and cried for days. it was such a strange time, with the joy of tashi bringing laughter to our days, and the loss of our beloved and oh-so-spirited cat breaking our hearts. we thought she'd be with us for years and years.

she always did seem of another world. we imagine that she is queen feline in some ethereal land where cats rule. she certainly looks down upon us from time to time. i assume she doesn't think too highly of loki and luna. but she thinks the world of tashi.



we sure do miss you uva ursi.