Thanks for Everything, Hazel

Yesterday I said goodbye to a fixture in my life for the final time. Hazel delicately ate a handful of treats and then passed on to the great feline beyond. She was 19.

There are so many memories surrounding Hazel. Christy and I became adoptive parents in 2013 when Hazel was 10 years old. My niece, Josie, was with us at the Pasadena animal rescue and made a beeline for this cat who was rubbing against the confines of her cage and purring loudly.

Once we brought Hazel home, it would be weeks before I heard her purr again and nearly 72 hours before she emerged from underneath the couch. She was not having any of it.

Soon we discovered that Hazel embraced social distancing and self isolating long before it came into fashion. Along the way we also discovered that Christy was allergic… deathly allergic to cats. I have never seen a cat shed more. It was almost as if she shed and regenerated her entire coat on a daily basis.

Within two weeks Christy, through an antihistamine haze, demanded that I find a new home for Hazel. Within 48 hours I was going through TSA security with a cat that was not #blessed to be on the trip. You’re not going to believe this, but secondary screening at LAX was not the best time ever experienced. 

Once through security, what followed was one of the worst travel experiences ever. And I fly a lot. Hazel yowled for two straight hours. Since I was booked on Southwest, there were no nonstops to Portland, so we stopped in Las Vegas. This was not lucky. The yowling continued. I was getting sympathetic looks. I used my cache of drink coupons to appease my fellow passengers on this harrowing journey.

Eventually we arrived in Washington and Hazel was relocated with my Aunt Shirley who had three cats and a dog at the time. Hazel was not impressed. Hazel took over the laundry room and did not come out to socialize. 

Within four years of her arrival, Hazel finally emerged from the laundry room and began spending more time in the “general population”. At the ripe old age of 17 she finally began gracing the house with her presence on a daily basis. Progress!

Hazel was difficult on a good day, but just like that crazy uncle, she truly became part of the family. The old saying: we don’t choose pets, pets choose us rang true throughout the Hazel experience. Hazel tolerated us and begrudgingly accepted us – especially at meal time.

It doesn’t always work out quite the way we think or hope it will. The old Jewish expression “Man plans; God laughs” certainly applies here.

Hazel will be missed. 

And now… Sister Hazel.