Geordi

My dad's cat, Geordi, had to be put down today. He had had kidney problems for more than 1/2 of his 13-year life and it just got to be too bad this time and he had to leave us.

Geordi was Lauren's and my cat until we moved to the UK, so it's a tough day for us.

Geordi was found when he was 4 months old, along with his 3 siblings. When we went to the shelter, I was more interested in getting one of his siblings, a Calico, but the feeling wasn't mutual. It jumped out of my arms and ran away. Another one of his siblings hissed at me. Geordi walked up to my hand, sniffed my knuckles, and rubbed against them. He was our can from that moment.

We went through a lot with Geordi. Lauren naming him after Geordi La Forge; when we figured out he was loosing his baby teeth when we found teeth all over the flat over the course of a couple of months. We went through the period of him peeing in our dustpan, getting on top of our fridge, getting outside and chasing squirrels, and generally being a manic cat in our apartment. He would poke Lauren in the face to wake her up, pee on her side of the bed (never mine, for some reason), wrestle with me and sit on any grading I had to do. His incredibly loud an incessant meowing, that could both drive you crazy and also make you feel like you were having a conversation with him.

I moved him from California to Maryland with Geordi while he was recovering from surgery after one of his kidney stone problems. My mother was very ill at the time and I didn't know if bringing a cat into my parents' lives was the best thing at that time. I never got a good sense of how my mother felt about him, but he was a godsend for my dad when my mother died a few months later.

He was a different cat in Maryland. A much calmer cat, who seemed to match my dad incredibly well. Not the cat that would race around at full speed, but a cat that would take his time getting around - what was the rush in a much bigger space to live. He also became a cat that could go outside without the constant worry that he would run away. He still was a loud meower though and always would want to tell my dad about his day when my dad came home.

He was my dad's loyal companion for nearly 8 years, who my dad talked about more than anything else.

Even though I haven't seen him very much since 2010, Geordi is very much a part of my life. We talk about him all the time and just a few days ago our kid saw a cat and she immediately said that it 'looks like Geordi'. I look at him every time I unlock my iPod, looking at his regal best and have never considered changing the lock screen on that iPod.

I'm going to miss that guy.