"Meow," said Guro.

Guro's Tune

Guro has been with us for over 16 years,
and she gave us a lot of joy.
In February, 2000, she said good-bye to us.

We met Guro when she was brought to our house by my grandma's friend.

Her parents are a Persian cat and a tortoiseshell cat. So the feel of her body was sorta fragile, and she still had some long hair. As you see, her fur is mostly covered in black and brown, so not many people wanted her.
Grandma's friend left her in my house without our decision to keep her. At that time, we'd already had several cats, so we didn't intend to have another cat.

Although we weren't sure if Guro had some bad experience with human beings before she first came to our house, Guro was so nervou about us that she ran into under the floor and didn't get out of there a couple of days. We thought she was very hard to handle since we never had such a cat who was afraid of human beings.

After we decided to keep her, she stubbornly avoided contact with humans. Other cats were free to stay and play inside the house, but only Guro spent all her time outside. Even when we fed her, she timidly approached toward us and kept a certain distance between her and us.

As time went, probably since she realized we wouldn't harm her, she's getting used to us and came not to run away when seeing us come closer.

(To be continued...)

Guro's Memoir

In 1988

A rare picture in which she stared at a camera.

In 1995

She used to drink water from a washtub in which we store water for plants. She had her own water vessel, but she liked to drink from something new or strange.

In 1995

She always got away from us when we came close to her. Then, she stayed distant and stared at us. She sometimes nestled up to tree's trunk and purred but never lowered her guard. Although very interested in humans, she didn't know how to fawn on people without hesitation.

In 1996

In 1998

A Day Before

She usually turned her face against or moved to somewhere where we couldn't reach when a camera tried to catch her face. But this day, she stayed where my mon found her basking in the sun even when mom walked toward her. Mom thought this was very unusual but also a chance to catch Guro's close-up shot. After petting Guro's face with both hands, mom released the shutter twice. This is one of the pictures.
(2/26/00)

In the next morning on Sunday, February 27, 2000, she passed away while sleeping. It was the day all the family was at home. Here's a quote from my mom's email.

"Around 6:30, Guw (we called her so) passed away. When (my grandma) said "Guw," Guro always twitched her ears, but she didn't this day. Grandma thought it's strange, so she put her hand on Guro and found her gone. As soon as I woke up around eight, I went to say "Good morning" to Guro who 'was sleeping' in her usual way as she did every day. I petted her. She was still warm...and when I put my hand under her armhole, it was subtly warm and I felt as if her heart was still beating. Her eyes were half-opened, so I tried to close them. But Guro hesitated it as if she was saying 'I wanna watch outside.' Her eyes reflected dim light, and the eyes emitted her gentle warm glimmer. Her spirit left us forever."

Guro without her gentle spirit

I haven't gone back to Japan for sevral years, so I haven't touched her so long and can't touch her any more. After leaving us, I think she's with my deceased grandma and grandma feeds her. Guro, who couldn't come to us freely. I wish now she is no longer afraid of anybody.
(2/27/00)

Go to Cat's page

ToroGuro Home | Comments? | Framed page | Japanese page

Guro has been with us for over 16 years, and she gave us a lot of joy. In February, 2000, she said good-bye to us.

Guro has been with us for over 16 years,
and she gave us a lot of joy.
In February, 2000, she said good-bye to us.