An Absence of Achmed

 He came into our lives at 3 a.m. in the morning, 7 years ago, crashing in through the cat flap into my bedroom, announcing to all within that HE lived here now.


It wasn't an easy start. He loved our old dog, Holly. Loved all the people at the resort. Did NOT love Napster, the resident cat.   Because he was given to leaping out of hiding places to pounce on Napster, David dubbed him Achmed, the Terrorist. 

The name stuck.  So did the cat.

We loved him dearly. He was a huge personality (cat-anality?)  He loved to come hiking with Nancy and the guests. Would go along with Nancy when she rode the horses, or coached them.  Rode on the roofs of cars... and adored riding on the golf cart with the dog.

He was everywhere, visiting all the cottages, chatting up all the guests. Making friends .

When the G8 rolled into town, he changed Canadian Security regulations.  Every evening he would hop up on the balcony, rubbing his face against the screen, purring, trying to get inside where the officers were holding their briefing. After a few days, the Supervisor asked me, joking, "So, Achmed, who DOES he report to?"
I replied, "Well, you know that bell he is wearing? It isn't really a bell."  Because of Achmed Security now checks all pets for electronic bugs. He saved the world.


He became best friends with Napster, sharing a bowl of food and a place to curl up in the sun together.

He was with his best buddy Holly, when at 17 1/2 she left us.  For two years he 'held the fort' until Taffy arrived to take over the duties of a 'proper dog'.

Determined and persistent, it was impossible to convince him to stay inside at Night.  He was his own cat, with his own agenda, his own ways.

And his own, huge, fan club.

On July 8, following a big rain storm, he slipped out the cat flap door, as he had every day since he arrived.

This time, he didn't come home.

It is incredible how big and echoing the hole is that is left behind by 15 pounds of ginger fur and a purr.

We miss him. Terribly.



“He heard a whisper on the wind,
and went to chase the leaves of heaven,
play with feathers on angels’ wings and sleep in the Greatest Lap of all.”