Saying goodbye to an old friend...

This is Blaise’s blog, but today I want to write about another member of our family.

Last night, Erin and I had to say goodbye to our cat, Mia. Mia was my cat for 9 years and she was the first pet I ever had. If you’ve known me for very long, you’ve probably heard at least one or two pretty good “Mia stories” because she was a very smart, cunning cat, who also had great comic timing. When I adopted her, I really had no idea how to be a cat owner, which worked out alright since Mia seemed to have little idea how to be a cat: she followed me around MIT’s East Campus like a dog (she’d even “heel”) and was primarily able to out-wit the other cats on Third East by waiting for them to act like cats and promptly acting like a person. We had tons of fun while I was still living in the dorm, and Mia kept me good company during the early years of grad school, the stress of writing my doctoral dissertation, a winter so cold I had her wear a scarf IN the apartment, and all the good and bad times since.

Mia died at home, with Erin and I sitting with her and petting her. She had lost a great deal of weight in the last two weeks, most likely due to kidney disease. The past few days weren’t easy for her or for us, but mostly she just became weaker and weaker until she was ready to go. It’s easy to wish I had done more (and I do) but I also think Mia had a good life with us and had a relatively calm passing.

I won’t tell you that I thought of Mia as being like a kid. I didn’t think that before I actually had a kid and I still don’t think it’s an apt or a necessary analogy. The thing is, like I said, I didn’t know how to be a cat owner when I met Mia and she helped me work out that it doesn’t matter what you know or don’t know going in. You just do your best to have fun together, understand each other, and take good care of one another. I think that’s what Mia and I did, and we had a great time doing it. Though being a parent is much different than being a pet owner, Mia helped me figure out how to just jump into something big with both feet…something that helped a lot as I’ve spent the past year working out how to be Blaise’s dad. For my part, I hope Mia had more good days than bad, and went on her way knowing how much Erin and I loved her.

So here’s to a cat who had a lot of dignity, a lot of brains, and was immense fun to be around. I’ll miss you, Mia.