Malificent

Malificent, our cat that we've had for ten years, died of kidney failure today. Malificent first came into our lives in 1998 when we lived at our condo we have by the store. Just about every day after I'd come home from work, Malificent (we just called her kitty then) would come up to greet me and she did this for almost a year before we even put out water and food for her. We started putting out water and food for her outside our condo because even though we thought she belonged to someone in the neighborhood we thought that a little more food wouldn't hurt her. Her age was estimated by a vet shortly after we took her with us to our new home as being about four, so she lived until about the age of fourteen.
It wasn't until almost two years that we determined that Malificent didn't belong to anyone around our condo's neighborhood (she never had a collar) so when we moved we decided that we'd bring her with us. Our condo was too small to have her stay inside all the time, but as we moved to our house we just kept her indoors and she never made protests to want to go outside. I think indoor living was totally suited to Malificent because she was really just a sedate cat that loved to lounge around (sure all cats do, but Malificent took lounging around to a new level).
Malificent LOVED getting brushed, especially by Kate. The only place Malificent wasn't too fond of getting brushed (or petted) was towards her back and she would try to meow disapprovingly (her meower didn't work that well, we always joked that she seemed as if she was a chain smoker). In the winter time at bedtime, Malificent liked to lay upon Kate for extra warmth and the rest of the year she'd lay alongside me. This past winter we let our other cat, Alucard, come into our bedoom (we used to keep them apart at night, but she gradually tolerated his presence), but since Alucard thinks he's the boss of the house he got to lay upon Kate so Malificent would go back to her old standard place along my side. Kate named her Malificent (after the wicked witch in Sleeping Beauty) just as a joke, because she never lived up to her namesake.
Growing up I never had a cat (no pets in the house much to my dismay) so Malificent was the first cat I'd "owned" (actually our pets end up owning us). I've always loved cats with their independent, mysterious, graceful, and curious mannerisms. Malificent was never that curious (she wasn't really into climbing in bags or boxes or chasing lights like Alucard or other cats I've known) and actually she was a lot more affectionate than other cats in my experience. She actually loved people, but didn't have much regard for other critters (much to my disappointment when Alucard adopted us about six years ago as I thought she'd like a companion animal). So while Malificent wouldn't really come when you called her, she often came up to us to be petted and she was a constant companion to me laying / sleeping by my side on the sofa as I read or watched television. The last couple of months, Malificent would increasingly walk and lay upon my chest for more attention.
Often while perfecting her art of sleeping, Maificent would perform what Kate and I would call "the butt flop", which involved her ungraciously hoisting her butt and her whole body to her flip side - this never got old or not funny. Malificent was also the gueen of prompting us to give her cat treats especially whenever either of us returned to the house as she'd jump upon the kitchen island waiting on the corner for us to go to the pantry where she knew the treats were stored. I hope everyone gets a chance to have a wonderful companion pet such as Malificent because even though she was just with us for what I feel was ten short years (it was estimated that she was four when we took her in), she enriched our lives tremendously.