a tribute to Emo

In late September (on the 23rd) we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Emo.  We had a good nine years together starting from when we adopted her over labor day weekend of 2009.  She was a remarkable cat for her small size, seven pounds in her healthiest years, and her extreme affection and sociability. She liked everyone (except 1.5 to 2.5 year olds) and was not the type to hide during a party.  Rather than being a lap cat, she was more of an as-close-as-she-could-get-to-your-heart cat.  When we got her at age six she was extrememly playful and jumped with impressive athleticism that puts our one year old cats to shame.  She remained interested in play until some point last winter.  Even as D passed through the phase where he couldn’t touch things without grabbing them she was extremely gentle.

She’s well documented here on this blog.  Some of my favorites are the Korat cat from the frat about her probable breed and fancy first home and Emo unleashed which has a video of her exploring outside of my parents’ house.  Back before we had D, we also made a fun photoshopped calendar of her.

Like most pets, she was a huge part of our lives and a review of our years together is really a review of everything important that happened to us during those years.

She came in to our lives in our second year in Boston, at a really lonely point in my life.  She made me much happier.

In 2010 she helped Jack deliver the final clue in his surprise wedding proposal.

In 2011 we suffered a cross country flight with her (really with the woman in the seat next to us) and we left her in the care of Jack’s dad and step mom for six months during our Grand Adventure.

We were reunited in 2012 and had a few quiet years until D came in 2014.  In 2016 we moved in to our house, doubling or tripling her living space.  She learned to trust D again and then we introduced the kittens in 2017.  They spent a year together and never quite became friends, though she and Luna lay side by side on the couch over the winter and I’m pretty sure I saw Toru lick her face a few times.

This was our first time having to make the decision to put a pet down and it was really difficult.  In July the vet said that her blood work almost certainly indicated something major, like cancer.  She suffered from some difficult-to-treat ear infections over the summer and lost a lot of weight.  The final straw came the night before her last day when her back legs appeared to stop working fully and she seemed pretty miserable.  She also spent most of her last few weeks on the roof and we knew that with the oncoming rainy season and new baby she wouldn’t have much attention or sunlight, which were the things that still seemed to bring her joy. 

In Boston, including the proposal

Emo and D

In our Seattle apartments

On one of her rare outdoor adventures

At our house

September 2019

la boîte

One of the oddball things I wanted to do when building our own house was make a space for a batting cage for baseball practice. Originally, i was thinking of a place where you could pitch or hit, but that would require 70-75 feet of space, so when we started seriously looking at the lot we eventually bought (only 45 feet long) I revised my mental picture of how I would use it.  

In the end, I was able to carve out a roughly 12' wide space along the side of the house which is fine for batting practice, at least.  This is why the first floor of our house is smaller than the 2nd and 3rd floors- which wasn't easy to build (that's why we have four big steel beams) but actually fine for how the house works- especially because we were limited in the total amount of floor space by the zoning code.  It's nicer to have that space on the top floor than down on level 1.  The overhang provided by the house also gives us dry access to the bike / outdoor equipment storage accessed from there. 

During the design process, Cari decided we needed a shorthand way to refer to the space, so she coined "la boîte." Totally works for our family, and I think I have heard the grandparents start to use it, as well.

This spring I was able to order a net online and put it up so that I could start using the space for hitting.  La boîte is too tight for regular balls to ever be used in it (I think even tennis balls may be too much), but I already had a golf-ball-sized whiffle ball pitching machine, and I been able to use that.  Cari was also kind enough to give me soft-toss a fair amount, as well.  The net I ordered was sized to hold in golf balls, and it's nice to never, ever have to worry about one escaping.  The net is only 34 feet long (the length of the house - I was able to order a custom size) and that is plenty to get good batting practice.

It has been really gratifying how much D has used the space, as well.  We want to thank our parents for indulging him with countless hours of "baseball" down there while they are taking care of him.  He is far more excited for T-ball to start up again next spring than he was when it ended in June.  

Eventually, I would like to be able to push the net together and roll it up somehow to clear the space below, but that is pretty far down the list.  At first I felt a bit embarrassed about having the net hanging down from below the house, but, like most things, I got used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore (can't speak for Cari on this one).  Someday, I am going to get the outlets working down there, maybe some lights on the underside of the house, a new (small foam ball) pitching machine, and practice lots. Maybe I will hit a baseball over the outfielders head next year!

roof is a wrap

It only took us the seven months from March through September to finish our roof, but we managed to finish before our overdue baby arrives!

Here are the posts on the pavers and the first planter boxes.   Now we (95% Jack, 4% me and 1% D) have finished the boxes around the perimeter along with the drip irrigation system.   We also planted some bulbs I’m excited about and come spring we want to put in grasses on the north and south perimeters.

August was so miserable with the wildfire smoke we didn’t have as many dinners (or parties) on the roof as I would have hoped.

A few of the plants we are hoping will make it through the incredibly windy winter are a new zebra grass, two kinds of junipers, some boxwoods and a dwarf spruce tree. 

I say that we’re done, but really there’s always more to do in any garden, right?  

While I’m sharing pictures, here is one of the progress on the six new townhouses being built across the street.  We have no beef with them and are kind of happy about where they sit on their lot in relation to our windows.  I’m excited to see what kind of street trees they put in since that side of the street doesn’t have power lines and the previous trees were only about five feet tall, which seemed like a wasted opportunity!