Jessica Lowther & Kokomo
Kokomo was somebody else’s cat before he was mine. It’s sometimes terrifying to think about— that he was so close to never coming into my life at all. It was 2006 when I first became aware of him through my high school boyfriend’s college roommate. His mom was getting married to a man who didn’t like cats, and she needed to get rid of him. I had been complaining about how my mom wouldn’t let me take my childhood cat, Tonio, to college with me. (Turns out that your cat siblings don’t belong to you!) He asked if I was interested in taking his mom’s cat off her hands, and if so, he’d hold him for me until I had my apartment ready for my sophomore year of college at Michigan State.
Kokomo finally came to live with me in August 2007 in Lansing, Michigan. He was about one and a half, and I fell in love immediately. I didn’t know it then, but his beautiful green eyes and funny personality would captivate dozens of people in the years to come, even turning anti-cat people into pro-cat people! He came with his name, but I used to tell people he’s obviously named after the second-best Beach Boys song because you can’t call a cat “God Only Knows”.
After college in 2010, I packed up Kokomo and whatever else I could fit into my red Dodge Stratus and moved to Washington, DC for an internship at SiriusXM. The apartment I rented had huge floor-to-ceiling windows—he was obsessed. I knew immediately that my life’s goal would be to make this cat as happy as possible, including finding an apartment for us with big, beautiful windows for sunbathing and bird and people watching.
“The pandemic brought the world so much sorrow, but it strangely brought us the comfort and joy we didn’t know we needed and extra precious time with our sweet boy. ”
In the summer of 2012, I started noticing worrying health problems with Kokomo. I had just broken my left foot and it was difficult to get around the city on crutches, but I managed to somehow carry him into a Georgetown animal hospital, where they found a bladder stone. I was barely making any money at my radio job, and the vet quoted me a minimum of $3500 for the surgery. It was never an option not to go through with it—he has always been the most important thing to me since the day he walked through my door. For the next year, as I paid down that CareCredit card, I lived on Cup of Noodles and peanuts, but it didn’t matter as long as he was OK.
We didn’t know it at the time, but June of 2013 was when my and Kokomo’s lives would change forever. After years of less than stellar casual dating, I decided to give online dating a try. I signed up for OKCupid because 1) it was free and 2) I thought it would be the easiest way to weed out the type of guy I didn’t want to date. My profile made it very clear—if you don’t like cats, you need not apply. There is no room for negotiation. Cats or GTFO. I received over 60 messages that first day (#humblebrag?), but only one really grabbed my attention—a message from a hot 28-year-old named Brian.
Brian and Kokomo would quickly form such a solid bond, that I’ll never really know who Brian fell in love with first—me or Kokomo, but I think we all know the answer. (Hint: he has green eyes and a tail.) Brian spoiled him with heated beds, toys, scratchboards, treats, and cuddles. We all finally moved in together in 2016, officially becoming a family.
In 2017, during a routine vet visit, we were given the devastating news that Kokomo has a tumor growing on his liver. I thought this was the beginning of the end for us—I cried for weeks as I felt control slipping through my fingers. This wasn’t the plan. He’s supposed to live forever!
In March 2019, my TV job moved us to New York City, and we settled in Brooklyn. We found an apartment with big, beautiful windows, finally fulfilling my 2010 promise to Kokomo. We quickly got him established with a new vet, who estimated he probably had a good two years left before the tumor would start affecting his liver function. Another devastating blow, and now it has a ticking time clock. We promised at that moment that we would make every effort to make his life as wonderful and comfortable as possible, no matter how much time we had left.
It wasn’t even a full year in New York for us when the pandemic hit in 2020. I sometimes think I might have wished the pandemic into existence because all I ever wanted was to work from home so I could spend all day with Kokomo—and that’s exactly what Brian and I have both done for the last two and a half years. The pandemic brought the world so much sorrow, but it strangely brought us the comfort and joy we didn’t know we needed and extra precious time with our sweet boy.
Now, as the rest of the world has started traveling again, we have stayed right here in Brooklyn—content in our co-dependencies and making sure Kokomo is spoiled, happy, comfortable, and gets LOTS of snuggles. I’m sure some people think it’s silly to put your life on hold for an elderly cat, but they’ve never met Kokomo. There is truly no other place in the world I’d rather be than with him.
Jessica Lowther is a true crime TV and podcast producer based in Brooklyn. She loves tacos, long walks, and watching premium television on the couch with her boyfriend and her cat.