Gumby was born in 2003. When I started law school, I spent a year living with my parents. They decided they wanted a pair of purebred kittens and brought home Cleo and Gumby.

Cleo was sweet, docile, and took to family life well. Gumby decided he hated my parents.

Hate means hate

People sometimes use the word “hate” when they mean dislike. In this case, Gumby hated my parents. My father could bribe him with treats, which Gumby would swipe before running away. He greeted my mother with flattened ears and growling.

My parents were fairly aggravated with the breeder and said they had been sold a feral cat. I asked whether I could work with him.

Three days

I put Gumby in my room with Star. It took three days of quietly reading beside the bed to get him to come out.

Once he did, he became my shadow for the next thirteen years.

Gumby would come out of hiding only when I was around, or for a very few selected friends. One law-school classmate said, “If I hadn’t seen him that once, I’d say you made him up.”

The law-school miles

Gumby loved to play fetch and relax in the crook of an arm while I read. He was cordial with Starry Night. They would nap beside each other, although never tangled together like Oriental Shorthairs.

When I had time off from law school, I never flew home. I bundled the two cats into a carrier and drove nine hours. They made the trip between California and Las Vegas perhaps a dozen times.

The little box of important ashes

In 2016, Gumby lost nearly all his weight over several months. An X-ray showed an inoperable kidney tumor. It was Christmas Eve when I finally had to take him in. The veterinarian let me bring him home until December 27, when I had to let him go wherever they go.

I will never forget walking down the street with his ashes a few weeks later. He is with Star and my mother in my little box of important ashes.

The family line

Gumby was also a San-Toi cat, but he was never bred. His mother, Hot Chocolate, is ancestral to Sasaki and to every current UltraVires kitten.

The connection runs beside Gumby rather than through him, but it makes the family line personal. The mother of the cat who became my shadow is still present in every current litter.

Hot Chocolate’s line continues in Sasaki and every current UltraVires kitten.