Liz Dean, Winston & Nadja
I’ve realized that I’ve actually never lived without a cat, except when I was in college and living in dorms. When I was born, my parents already had a cat—a fluffy black cat named Alacryse. One of my favorite stories as a child was a Korean folk story about a family cat whose fur produced rice when the family was struggling and hungry, so I think from an early age I also saw cats as magical and mysterious, but also good and important fixtures in the family.
I adopted Winston with my ex after we moved in together because we thought it would be nice for my cat Fitz (who recently passed away) to have a buddy. I fell in love with Winston the moment I met him at Animal Care & Control in Harlem. Winston is named after the character Winston Bishop from The New Girl. Like the character on the show, Winston has a big personality and he’s also incredibly silly.
I frequently find him with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, so I have dozens (maybe hundreds?) of photos of him like that. He loves to play, and brings me whatever his current favorite toy is (sometimes it’s literal garbage—like a twisty tie, or the plastic wrapper from the top of a pint of ice cream) so that we can play fetch. He especially loves it when I throw toys in the bathtub for him to retrieve. He follows me everywhere—into the bathroom, snoozes next to me (or tries to bring me toys) when I do yoga, and waits next to the bed (sometimes not so patiently) for me to wake up so that we can play. I set up obstacles around my apartment so that he will jump over them as we’re playing fetch.
He’s also very smart—I trained him how to do a few tricks. He knows how to sit, give a “high five”, jump on my back, and more. He knows words—for example, if I shout, “Winston, there’s a BIRD” he’ll come bolting out of whatever room he’s in to come look out the window. Like many cats, he loves cardboard boxes and paper bags—my partner once almost threw him out with the recycling because he was hiding inside some cardboard boxes! He can be kind of a brat when he wants attention, but otherwise he’s a very sweet boy.
Liz & Nadja
Nadja came into my life completely unexpectedly. I work for a group of veterinary practices, and a few weeks ago, a kitten was surrendered to one of the practices. She was only five weeks old and in bad shape. We think she might’ve come from some kind of hoarding situation. I’m not a particularly spiritual person or anything, but it was hard not to see the significance of the fact that this tiny kitten was a miniature of my older cat, Fitzwilliam, who had been diagnosed with cancer and did not have long to live. It had been a tremendous struggle for me to deal with because I’d had him since he was a baby—for over fourteen years. So, I offered to foster this kitten, thinking that it would be a welcome distraction. Of course, I knew almost immediately that she would be a “foster fail” because this tiny version of Fitz had entered my life right before he was going to depart it.
Nadja is named after the character from What We Do In the Shadows because she’s fierce (completely unafraid of the two much larger cats she lives with) and also very funny and because she came into my life in a way that seemed supernatural. She’s an absolute joy to have around. She’s playful and sweet and loves chasing around and playing with her older siblings. She loves to fall asleep on my chest while I’m watching TV. She only recently learned how to meow (she used to open her mouth but no sound came out)—very hilariously, it sounds like a balloon deflating when she does. She loves people—I brought her in to work for a checkup and she was a big hit both with my coworkers and passersby. My coworkers carried her around in their pockets, and we let her hang out in the office where there are big floor-to-ceiling windows, and everyone on the street stopped to admire her and take pictures. It has truly been such a blessing to have her come into my life when she did.
A tribute to Fitz:
Fitzwilliam (Fitz, or Fitzy, for short) was the first cat I had who was really mine (or, rather, I was his). I was working at a horse barn in western Massachusetts the summer before my senior year of college, and a feral cat there had a litter of kittens. The barn was going to be sold at the end of the summer, and the fate of the cats was unknown, and I realized no one would care if one of the kittens went missing. I chose Fitz because he was the cutest kitten I’d ever seen—his head, legs, and tail were black, but his body was silver. He looked like a panda bear. He was named after Fitzwilliam Darcy (from Pride & Prejudice). Fitz was a very sweet and gentle boy. He was always very friendly and curious, and loved to climb in any available lap and just sit and purr (he especially loved getting in my lap when I was on Zoom calls, as if he wanted to be a part of the conversation).
When he got excited, he would curl up his fluffy tail and pin his ears back so that he looked like a little demon cat. When he wanted my attention, he would find any piece of paper (like a receipt) and tear it to shreds. My sister used to say that he was “creepy”—because sometimes he’d just sit there, staring at you, and because he’s all black he looked like a shadow (or one of those soot sprites from Spirited Away) with just his yellow eyes shining at you. He used to also stare at corners and meow, which I always joked was because he saw ghosts or spirits that I couldn’t see.
Fitz was diagnosed with cancer (something called “large cell lymphoma”) in early fall of 2021, which did not have a good prognosis. The news was heartbreaking—he’d been a fixture throughout my entire adult life, and had been with me through all of the highs and all of the lows—apartment moves, relationships, jobs, etc. I was very lucky to have access to some of the best veterinary care in the city to make sure the remainder of his days were comfortable and peaceful. He died peacefully in the comfort of home, with me and my partner.
Liz Dean lives in Washington Heights with her partner and three cats. She works as the Director of Experience for a group of veterinary practices in New York City. In her spare time, she rides horses and does yoga.