A Kitten Called Peekay
When a tiny kitten came into my life recently, there was no doubt in my mind what I would call him. Holding him up to my face we locked eyes, and he was not afraid. “Today,” I told him “you are 8 weeks old, tiny and about to be separated from your mother. But in you there is a light that burns the color of your golden coat marked with stripes, spots and circles. I shall call you Peekay and teach you the origin of your name.
Peekay’s first literary connection was an unforgettable character in Bryce Courtenay’s 2008 novel The Power of One who surfaced from the stacks where books live in my mental library. My original, dog-eared copy of this grand novel is somewhere in Missouri where much of my Boomerang Creek library was donated before Kit and I moved to Nevada City three years ago. Without hesitation I bought another copy and am reading it again for the first time in sixteen years—exactly the number of years we shared with our three cats Fanny, Scribbles and Pooh who will forever continue to flower in the shade garden we left behind at Boomerang Creek.
When I brought Peekay home in his carrier the first night, I read the back of the novel’s book jacket aloud to him, just as I read aloud to Kit each night before saying good night and leaving the Lodge until I return the following day. “This,” I tell the tiny kitten is what this story is about and why I have named you Peekay.”—
“In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams—which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one.”
Peekay’s mother is a brownish tabby with stripes and his father is a regal Bengal with spots and swirls characteristic of his breed. Completely at home now as part of the Salter household, Peekay has his own suite in the guest bathroom where he spends nights and nap times when I am at the Lodge. In the morning hours, he is up when I rise around 5:30 a.m. investigating the house from room to room, playing with two toy Kittens and various items I find around the house. His favorites include small pieces of white paper wadded up in a ball. I flick them across the hardwood floor and he stops them with precision moves of his front paws like a champion soccer goalie. He also returns paper balls and waits for the next one to be sent flying.
On the recommendation of our neighbors, owners of a pair of sister orange tabbies called Mac and Cheese, I took Peekay to 4 Paws Animal Clinic in Nevada City for the first of five wellness checkups he will have over the course of the first year of his life. It’s small inclusive lobby, examination rooms and hallway are filled with oil paintings by local artists depicting dogs and cats.
Dr. Sue Lester and the staff adore Peekay. and love that he’s not only smart as a whip, but he’s also a “fetcher” skilled at retrieving balls that he promptly drops at my feet.
To date, Peekay’s adventures around our house include playing soccer in the bathtub with a ball of any kind. In the kitchen/laundry area, he investigates every possible space between the appliances and cabinets that he might shape-shift through. Floor vents fascinate him to no end, along with a coir welcome mat that serves as a scratching pad. Eventually he will figure out how to open one of the kitchen cabinets, but I’ll worry about that another day.
My study is a kitten playroom when I’m writing until he exhausts himself trying to play with the mouse on my computer. Finally he jumps down into my lap, flips over on his back with his head facing up at me and his pink toed feet dangling like a mermaid’s tail below my knees. With his head just under my computer keyboard he listens to the rhythmic clickety click of words being formed overhead until at last, this adorable little golden boy sinks into a deep and peaceful slumber.
And as he sleeps, Peekay dreams of his favorite spot in the living room library that is already filled with books about the adventures of various cats and kittens—Mary Sarton’s The Fur Person, The Importance of Being Oscar, Advanced French for Exceptional Cats, Paintbrush in Paris: The Artistic Adventures of an American Cat in Paris, Cat People by Margaret and Michael Korda, and The Bengal Identity (a cat mystery Eileen Watkins).
Welcome to my website, Peekay. I’ll be sharing your feline adventures with my readers in future blogs. In the meantime, get into some good trouble, one room at a time. As you grow and your adventures become epic, you will learn the power to transform lives. That is the power of one.