Hot Foot
October 12, 2024
On this day, my cat Kitty passed away. She was a beautiful all-white cat with blue eyes, and looked like a Turkish Angora cat but I found her hungry and dirty on the street on January 30, 2006. That year, the Mets went to game 7 of the NLCS and it was a magical year although it ended in disappointment. I always thought of Kitty as my good luck charm since all-white cats are traditional symbols of good luck. In 2006, the vet said Kitty was about three, would have made her about 21 in August 2024.
She stayed beautiful and acted like a kitten until about her last month alive, when she started to decline very quickly. It was an emotional roller coaster for me all July with anticipatory grief, and then on August 6 the day before this game, and she had a seizure or a stroke in the backyard and I found her barely alive when I got back from the beach, gasping for breath, and I picked her up and gave her CPR, but eventually she died in my arms around midnight of August 7, and I’m in LA, so it was about 3 am in New York when she left us.
I loved Kitty so much. She was like my mom. I lost my mom when I was 9, but when I hugged Kitty, I felt that same feeling of love that I felt when I hugged my mom.
The thing is, during 1986, my mom was sick and in and out of doctor’s offices and eventually the hospital. She passed away on December 7. She was a Mets fan, so I have always have felt that in a way my mom’s illness and passing was a sacrifice for the Mets to win the World Series.
And then I lost Kitty on August 6, 2024. Kitty was a baseball cat and she watched and listened to many Mets games with me over the years. I remember being devastated, in a state of shock-grief, and a co-worker who is a big Mets fan told me that Kitty was “in a better place”. And later that day (on August 10) I texted him, “you’re right. She’s in a better place. Just like the Mets.”
Since August 7, which is the date of the first game that the Mets played with Kitty in heaven, the Mets have gone 30-19 and played with a never-give-up, magical spirit that I haven’t seen since for a sustained period since 1986.
I believe Kitty is helping the Mets, along with Grimace and many other elements including Brandon Nimmo’s grandmother and Sean Manaea’s aunt.
On September 6th 2024, the Mets won their 8th game in a row, improving their record to 77-64 , and on that day I told my housemate (a Tigers fan) that I thought the Mets were going to win the World Series because of Kitty. He laughed and said, “let’s hope it’s Mets-Tigers and it goes 7 games.”
I do believe Kitty is also behind the Tigers’ run (because they are also cats) but more so, I sincerely believe with all my broken heart that the Mets will win the 2024 World Series.
It all goes back to this game, a come-behind win against the Rockies, the first with my soulcat (and angelcat) in heaven.
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