Frida has been gone for a few months now. She has wandered off before, but always been back w/in a few weeks. I’ve been trying not to admit that I’ll probably never see her again.

I’ve been thinking I ought to pay some sort of tribute to this little big cat we called Frida, as in free da good home. Maile came home from teaching at Paredes many years ago with a one of several kittens discovered in a hollowed tree behind the school, as I remember. From the beginning, Frida was always a bit ferrel and untamable. She bullied everyone about her turf including Townes, Punk, and anyone or animal that walked along Sunset Ln in front of the house.

She was a watchcat that would nip your ankles to terrorize you and remind you who’s walk you were on. She would talk to you, stare you down, and lay herself down near you as an equal. She was not capable of learning that she should not be on the counter, so she stayed outside. She would hop up and push glasses off while looking at you to show you she obeyed no rules.

She was at the top of the pecking order and routinely did a dangerous love dance with Townes to play and scratch him into submission. They had a special love affair, she was his dominatrix, and after a while of Townes grooming her and her winding in and out of his legs, Frida continually lashing at Townes’s nose or catching his fur in her claws, they would occasionally lay down and cuddle.

These are the things I love about Frida and honor in such a feisty little thing. Along with her sense of self and entitlement, she had the biggest personality I’ve ever seen in a cat and she made a worthy companion, one who would not submit to your rule, but would watch over you and keep you company with her own loyalty and pleasure.

Goodbye Frida, I miss you.

—

Thanks to Thomas for sharing this old video of Frida and Goopy, her first and best cat friend.