Today, I stumbled across some old photos of Orion, a cat I had when I was growing up, a long time before the tuxedo kitty invasion.
As a traditional Siamese cat, living on a farm, Orion always looked out of place. His ears must have looked like satellite dishes to his fellow felines. They refused to play with him from when he was a kitten, and at some point, he stopped trying to fit in with them and decided to go his own way.... and be himself.
Orion grew into a very tall adult cat. He would stay out all night hunting for lizards and snakes in the surrounding woodlands (and bring them back home, obviously). He would regularly attend ‘barbecue Friday’ at the beer garden across the road, where he would saunter along on the tables, stealing food from the plates of unsuspecting customers.
What he lacked in interactive skills with his fellow felines, he made up in his sociable nature towards humans. His fearlessness made him popular amongst tourists and locals alike. He would regularly go and hang out with neighbours in their gardens, or have spontaneous chats with passing hikers, before returning home for cuddle time.
Unfortunately he crossed the rainbow bridge at the young age of 6, due to possible undiagnosed heart failure. Some locals believe that he has been haunting the farmstead, the nearby woods and the site of the former beer garden ever since.
Despite his brief time on earth, Orion became somewhat of a local legend, because he was ‘different’. He could’ve just been a farm cat like all the others. He could have simply walked in the pawprints of all the farm cats that came before him, but instead he decided to make his own; serving as a gentle reminder of the fact that our time on earth is limited and that if we truly want to make an impact, we shouldn’t be wasting it, trying to live someone else’s life.
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