I’ve been crying on and off all day because today is the four month “anniversary” from Tunch’s death. I don’t know why, but I went back and read the original RIP post, and it just made me cry more. I just can not believe he is dead, and it has been four months. I still think about him every day, the magnificent fat bastard. I simply have no idea how people who lose children recover, bless their hearts.
In other news, it is really hard to remain despondent when you have Steve driving you insane all day long. He somehow managed, with his tennis racket mitts, to shoot molten shit and kitty litter out of his litter box and stuck it to the wall and got it into the carpet in the corner of his bedroom. I was sitting here watching a little tv before the Pens/Flyers game, and this green fog of vile came wafting into the room and almost knocked me out of my chair.
I went in and checked, and found Steve’s, umm, mess. Most annoying is that I changed his litter this very morning, so he was just getting all motivated with burying his bizness, I guess. It was in the corner, so I couldn’t use the spot bot and had to get a bucket and brush and do it by hand, which just made my god damned night.
And, because I know my place, twenty minutes later Steve was on my lap lavishing me with affection, and I just got done brushing him, which I think I like more than he does.
Cats. How does anyone go through their life without one in the house?
I love this picture:
Aji
Sorry, Cole. I still have days like that on the anniversaries of all of ours. They’re dogs, but same principle. They’re family members, and mourning is right.
Glad you have Steve.
schrodinger's cat
Thanks for making my day! Awesome kitteh was awesome and I still miss him and he was not even my kitteh.
Botsplainer
Boycott retailers who fuck over their workers on Thanksgiving day.
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=310996065707642&ref=stream&__user=651605346
khead
One. Three. Whatever.
Our SweetPea crashes with my wife and then swipes me when I try to climb into bed….. and then curls up and sleeps on me once I get settled.
imonlylurking
RIP Tunch.
I just had the oddest encounter at the store. I gave the cats the last can of food this morning and luckily remembered on the way home, so I stopped at Target. Got a box of assorted cans and then a few extra cans of their special favorite flavors. As I was wandering the store a little Hispanic girl stopped me and said “You have cats!” We then proceeded to have a brief conversation about how many cats, where they came from, and something that I finally understood to mean ‘what kind?’
Then her mother noticed she was talking to a stranger and called her away, and I heard her telling her mother, very earnestly, about the gatos.
SuperHrefna
Cats are the best! My Maine Coon kitten Toby has been filling my days with joy for the past two months – he really is the softest, cuddliest mush I’ve ever had and it is hard to remember life before him. I still miss my Pan who died of colon cancer this spring, but Toby salves the wound.
You will never forget Tunch. None of us will ever forget Tunch. But Steve is there to bring you all the joy and love his catly heart can bring, so enjoy him. In time you’ll be more used to living without Tunch and it won’t hurt so much.
Roger Moore
Allergies. And let me be the first one to recommend a top-entry litterbox, which are very effective at preventing litter scattering.
Cassidy
@Botsplainer: I have to work thanksgiving. Diabetics, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and smoke investigations wait for no holiday.
Jebediah, RBG
I don’t think they really do. I don’t think my mom is truly over the loss of either of my brothers (nor am I.)
And I still get teary sometimes over dogs that passed years ago. Glad Steve is making you feel a bit better. I am sure this has been said over and over, but when you get sad over Tunch, try to focus on the amazing life you gave him. He couldn’t have had it any better.
David Koch
my furbot is trying to steal my meal-lovers pizza as I type
ruemara
I don’t know. I step into the house and they aren’t here to greet me. I wake up in the morning and no kitty is excited for me to come out the bedroom. No one needs the litter changed and is there to inspect the job. No one needs to be fed and no tummy is splayed out before my feet, asking for pet. Kage isn’t there to curl up next to me on the sofa while I game, Takkun can’t hop on my lap while I work. My face has not been exfoliated with a tongue that feels like damp grit 3 sandpaper. But at least they’re alive, in a house where people can afford to keep them. But if I think about it, I miss them so hard.
@Roger Moore: Hah! JC, this is not so. Not for a determined cat who enjoys a little poo berry play time. But it keeps most of it contained. Clever Cat litter boxes.
raven
Biden on death of a loved one:
My bride’s 94 year old aunt died last night. About 5 years ago I filmed her for an hour while she talked. Glad I did.
gogol's wife
I’ve said this on other threads, but when I turned the Balloon Juice calendar to November and saw Tunch’s picture, I started crying. What a magnificent face. I miss him so much.
Steve is also a charmer — he’ll grow into greatness with the years.
raven
@Jebediah, RBG: A woman I know had her daughter murdered in Chapel Hill a few years back. I saw her at the pool today and, out of nowhere, she told me she found a lock of her hair that she didn’t know she had tucked away. She said it with the sweetest smile. I didn’t cry. . .outside.
schrodinger's cat
I can has apples and chickens! An afternoon in November.
dr. luba
@Roger Moore: What Roger Moore said. I like to breathe. Which is why I also avoid horses. I’ve been in near status asthmaticus once, and don’t care to ever repeat that experience.
Of course, cats can sense people with allergies, and immediately come up to them and rub against them. Not out of love, but because of their innate homicidal tendencies.
phoebes-in-santa fe
Cole, it’s good that you’re still remembering and mourning Tunch. He’ll always be there for you. And now Steve has come along and will help you. But you’ll always remember Tunch.
Oh, and Cole, please get a light source for your so we can get a few good pictures of Steve,
“Pictures, or Steve doesn’t exist”
SuperHrefna
@ruemara: hugs! You did a very hard thing letting them go to a new home, but a very mature and loving one.
Morbo
That’s just the Toxoplasma gondii talking.
Calming influence
I was thinking about Tunch the other day because of the “FEED” poster with his picture linking to the Balloon Juice store, and remembering when that was created. And I momentarily had a horrifying thought that one day I might stop by the site and not see it, so I downloaded that image.
Now I know I was just being silly. Once again, John, condolences. He must have been a wonderful companion.
Yatsuno
:: HUG ::
We shall never forget his Lord and Tunchness. Wifey is still in mourning from his untimely demise.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: {{{ruemara}}} I hope you can have your kittehs back with you soon. Keeping my paws crossed for you.
debit
I love that Steve has his own room. My office/guest bedroom is now called Julian’s room; it’s where he was quarantined and where he expects to be fed now.
And my first horse died twenty years ago in October and I still cry sometimes when I think of it. It was a stupid, senseless accident that shouldn’t have happened, and the people responsible were devastated, but my horse was still dead.
Jebediah, RBG
@raven:
Wow… I don’t know how people who’ve been through something like that don’t just crawl inside their grief and never come out. Good of you to keep your reaction internal, and let her have that moment in whatever way she wanted.
Paddy
It’s been a few years since I’ve had a cat in the house and sometimes it can seem very empty, notwithstanding the doggie snores and flatulence.
I know alot of people here are artsy and gifted, so I just want ya’ll to know that every year I do a “Cool Things” post for the holidays offering links to charities, art,music,book and all sorts of fun stuff that gets sent into me. You can check the idea out here or just email me direct at paddy at political carnival dot net.
Calming influence
@Morbo: “That’s just the Toxoplasma gondii talking.”
There’s only been a few of my 58 years that I haven’t had cats, so I’m pretty sure my neurons are chock-full of T. gondii proteins.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I have to go fishing now. They feel that the salmon I caught for them this morning isn’t quite fresh enough.
Omnes Omnibus
Easily. The lack of watery eyes and sneezing is quite pleasant.
@Roger Moore: Beaten to the punch.
maya
I can empathize with your sad anniversary. I think about all my past cats (5) and specifically the three boy cats each of whom died much too early. Shui just up and died on me before I could get him to the vet. To this day I don’t know what happened to him, but can only speculate that he fell off the deck railing, 10′ off the ground and may have gotten an internal hematoma. He’s buried near his favorite roosting spot in the backyard.
Haiku and Smokie, both tuxes, were clowns and the sweeetest guys I ever knew. They both got taken by a bobcat. Such is life, and death, in the NorCal mountains.
Two Russian blue girls, mother and daughter team, I had more than 17 years. Great talkers and even better feet warmers under the covers..
And there are the dogs: Two Skippers, Shadow, Spunky and Maya. The last being the only dog of them all who was born here, lived her 14 years and died here at home. I use her name as my online tag. The most loyal dog I ever knew.
Now I have an old curmudgeon tux who was probably abused as a kitten and doesn’t know how to play nice. Always with the claws out, but she and I have mellowed together. She’s lying right next to me now something she would not do the first 5or 7 years I had her.Some cats require patience.
Yes, it’s great to have a noob to redirect your anguish and bring out that smile. Don Stefano is just what the doctor would have ordered.
Cain
@Jebediah, RBG:
Me too. It’s been 6 months since I lost my fat, peeing on the carpet everywhere, kitty. I miss her even though she’s devasted our home, and cost us thousands of dollars in damage. Poor thing, she didn’t know what she was doing. We still have so many songs that rhyme with ‘brown’ or ‘brown cat’ or something like that. (it’s amazing how many songs you can modify to add brown cat!) We miss our first one as well.
We’ll likely lose the one we have, as she has an early onset of kidney failure. One day she’s going to go too. But at least it won’t be abruptly like my other two. Eaten by coyotes. This one likes to stay home and has no plans to go anywhere.
Violet
Very sorry for your loss, John. RIP Tunch.
I thought that racism post was the crap ass topper to a crap ass day, but this one beats that. Hey, maybe we can add a fuckton of natural disasters to things, plus some war and starvation and why don’t we beat up a bunch of women and kids too.
The world fucking sucks. What the fuck is the point?
RoonieRoo
Every once in a while, I pull up BJ and see the FEED image and get a pretty bad sad for Tunch. All my cats get lots of hugs whenever that happens. Time will heal but Steve will be the miracle balm. I am so grateful that you got Steve. He will get you through this.
Lavocat
For a straight white guy, you write the gayest posts. I’d tell ya to go get wasted but THAT ain’t a good idea, is it?
Look, you and Tunch had a great run. And now you and Steve are havin’ a great run. Just accept it.
Just live in the moment, dude.
Whoa. I think I just jumped the Lebowski.
That’s it, no more bong hits for me.
Time for the Cap’n Crunch.
Gravenstone
Ah, the Tunch meets Tunch jr. pic. Always a classic.
Felonius Monk
Or, three?
John, we still miss him too.
Betty Cracker
Tunch was such an icon that it still doesn’t quite seem possible that he’s really gone. Rest in peace, floofy boy.
Svensker
@Violet:
Loving and caring for one another. And the occasional good insult.
Aji
@Violet:
Cats. And dogs. And horses. And the occasional human.
MomSense
@ruemara:
Sending you a big hug, Ruemara. It was an act of love to let them go and I really admire you for that.
raven
@Jebediah, RBG: They have been incredible throughout this. They keep having trials and the local paper just has to cover it and it just seems awful that it’s dredged up. On the other hand, they haven’t forgotten her so I guess it doesn’t matter.
AliceBlue
You’re in good hands (mitts?) with Steve.
RIP Tunch.
Ash Can
Grief works that way. The different stages don’t progress entirely neatly. But they do progress, and thank Bastet you have Steve.
And on a thoroughly humorous note, courtesy of alert commenter darthstar at LGF, some poor misguided slob at JP Morgan had the bright idea to hold a Twitter Q&A. Yea verily, hilarity doth ensue.
ETA: Love those pics of Tunch. (There’s a whole other Tunch in that second photo!)
Garbo
The four-legged furry people are the best. We miss you, Tunch.
jl
Thanks for the Tunch pics. The one of Tunch contemplating his ex-fur makes me wonder why I never saw TunchFleece parkas in the BJ gear store.
hamletta
Jeez, not to get into one-upmanship or anything, but my mom died in June. I’ve been rather tear-impaired.
But I lost the lease on the house that I used to own, and now I’m being dissed by my parish where I ran shit, and I’m pissed off.
KRK
@Roger Moore:
I second the recommendation of a top-entry litter box. I had never even heard of them before my current cat arrived last summer with one in his baggage, and it’s been fabulous.
And RIP Tunch, feline extraordinaire.
Ash Can
@Violet: Try following my link at #41. That might make you crack a smile or two.
jnfr
Love you and all your posse, John.
BAtFFP
I’ve been a mostly-lurker for years and years now, but I talk about it constantly to my long-suffering husband (“I read this thing on Balloon Juice…” is how about half our conversations start). He’s gotten so used to me that he even checks the site now and then, just to see what I’m rambling about.
But I didn’t realize just what an impression I gave off about my adoration of the website and the pets on it until 4 months ago, when I was in the kitchen washing dishes and he burst in to tell me the news about Tunch. He came to tell me himself, he said, because he didn’t want me to find out on my own.
He’s a dear like that, and he even held me while I sniffled and didn’t once tease me about the fact that I was crying over a cat I’d never met. Thanks for the pix — I still miss that floof with the brown tail.
khead
So, my bro appears to be beating the odds so far when it comes to his aneurism. He’s far more coherent than I expected thanks to early actions by his employer and wife. Before surgery today we Facetimed and he had my sister hold the phone so I could see the drain hole in his head – my brother is a Borg now. The good news is that the procedure revealed no damage beyond the one burst vessel.
Yatsuno
@AliceBlue: Paws. Polydactlyl paws. He’s soooo doomed.
Ash Can
@BAtFFP: I’ll always remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Tunch’s demise, and I’m not joking. I still miss him, and I’d never met him — or his owner — either. He was more than the community cat, or mascot; he was the community icon. And such a cute and huggable-looking one he was too. He’ll live on for many, many years in all our memories.
PS: What a swell husband!
Ash Can
@khead: Such good news. Thanks for the update!
James Hare
Your post about Steve yesterday certainly made me think of Tunch. Steve using the cat tree immediately made me remember you giving Zsa-Zsa’s new owners the cat tree you bought for Tunch because he would never use it. If that was so memorable to me that I remembered it just from one little picture it would be hard to believe it didn’t impact you.
Cassidy
@Violet: I got toned out to a structure fire today that turned out to only be a brush fire that was already out. If there is a better way to be all dressed up and nowhere to go, that’s it. Small victories.
trollhattan
@Calming influence:
Ah salmon, the most noble of fish. Had a treat on my cycle commute home–watching two sea lions feasting on salmon in the river. This is a fully channelized, urbanized river stretch, a good eighty miles from the ocean, mind, and there these big boys were, feasting, rolling and frolicking. I”m sure the fishermen were pissed, but what the hey?
I too, miss senior floofy, the Tunchmeister. Distinctly remember that night.
Violet
@Ash Can: Thanks for the link. Alas, no smiling. None at all. JPM is stupid. They should no better. But they don’t. Because they’re stupid.
@Svensker: You can care for others all you wants, but expecting them to care for you is a fool’s errand. They don’t come through when needed.
@Aji: So animals are the point? They wtf are we here for?
Aji
@Violet: In my experience, the animals are a much better point than most of the people. My animals certainly do a lot better at providing a point to my days than, say, my relatives, for one. Hell, they make better relatives, to say nothing of friends.
Yatsuno
@Violet: Chocolate. All else is commentary.
Karen in GA
Tunch. What a great big wonderful beast.
I had ferrets until 2008. I still have their last bag of food in the cabinet.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
My asshole cat killed the big flatscreen teevee this evening.
Violet
@Aji: That’s my point exactly. Animals are better. People are useless. WTF are we here for? What’s the point?
@Yatsuno: Can’t have it.
StringOnAStick
We’ll be losing a human friend to cancer any day now, and far too young. Life is a history of loss and it certainly isn’t fair, but we don’t get to make the rules. We do get to decide how to survive loss though.
mclaren
Not only that, but in parts of Asia, cats make a delicious entree.
wasabi gasp
Wish you the best, John. Everybody loves you, bro, probably even that wr0ng [email protected] fella.
The Hush Sound – You Are My Home
[yeah…more tunes…it’s all I got, man. That and drawer full of wool socks.]
Aji
@Violet: Because the animals need servants?
Hey, it keeps me gettin’ up in the morning.
Violet
@Aji: They generally do okay in the wild without humans. Better, even.
gogol's wife
@Violet:
No, cats do not.
seaboogie
John – about grief (and directly related to loss of our furry companions)…you say four months, I say 120 days, give or take a few. A month in our minds seems like a long time, but if you put it into days, it seems very fresh and the grief seems to make more sense.
I am nearing a year since I lost my dear golden Seamus, or only about 340 days. We don’t spend our months with our furry friends, we spend our days with them.
Aji
@Violet: Not ours. Domesticated completely, at this point. Us, I mean; they’ve domesticated us. Seriously, though, I’ve seen what happened to most of ours when they were “left to the wild,” which was what the assholes formerly responsible for most of them had done, and it nearly killed them. Fortunately, we apparently have the words “Suckers” plastered to our foreheads in a language that is both invisible and indecipherable to humans.
Violet
@gogol’s wife: Big cats do. Lions, etc.
kc
{{{{hugs}}}}
Love those pictures.
Death Panel Truck
Quite happily, thank you very much. Ours is the House of Cockers.
MikeInSewickley
John,
Late to the comments but I’ve thought about Tunch everyday this month when I see his picture in the BJ Calendar for November.
It’s so hard not miss our loved ones, be they people or pets, but that is part of being human.
I hugged my animals a bit more tonight after your post. Hang in there…
CaseyL
It’s become important to me to see Tunch’s iconic FEED on the sidebar when I come here. And I get teary-eyed whenever you post a photo of him. He was a legend in his own time; a cat of many parts (all of them large parts); and I miss him nearly as much as my own fur-babies who’ve left this world.
I’m glad you and Steve found each other. It’s great that he’s already making some legends of his own, like King Cat of the Kitty Tree. I’m still curious about the pic from a few days ago, of Steve and Lily cuddling – wasn’t she afraid of him for a while?
Constance
Doesn’t seem to get easier. The Muffin died Dec. 21, 1012 and I grieved for months. I still miss her even tho she ate towels, pulled all my personal laundry off the bottom rungs of the drying rack, yowled for food, threw up three or four times a day the last five months (nasty lymphoma attacking her stomach) and generally ran the household for her convenience.
I miss Tunch and think of him often as I use the cups and cat bowls with his pictures. And see his photos in the calendar. Thanks for tonight’s photos of that gorgeous guy.
Calming influence
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
That cheap-ass flatscreen you bought at Recalls-R-Us was probably about to explode into flames, destroying your shitty dwelling and everything in it. For reasons known only to a higher power, your “asshole cat” saved your sorry-ass life.
You don’t deserve a cat. Start with a worm and work your way up.
Shee-it. Fuckhead really gets on my nerves.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Calming influence: We can meet up and work this out in person if pseudonymous commenting is too rough for you.
Calming influence
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Ah, caught you in a absurdist-comment-deficient mood. Apologies. I’ll call you and grovel on the phone; you’re listed under your real name, “Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader” I presume?
I hesitate to meet in person, but if you’re in the area of the Coleman dock in Seattle tomorrow let me know. I’ll be the guy holding the 3″ hawser.
CJane
Whenever one of my pets dies, I always think that I won’t get a new one right away, I’ll wait until I find exactly the right one. Then I always do what you did and get a new one right away. And it is always exactly the right one.
If you want a big litter box, check out this one: http://www.katkave.com/Kattails_Kat_Kave/Welcome.html
The maker is one of my fellow volunteers at our local shelter.
ET
John – love reading your pet posts. So hilarious to red what they are doing to you.
Cervantes
Domesticated animals are wonderful, no doubt. Yet everything I wanted to say here has been said above, except this: Thanks for scare-quoting “anniversary” when you wrote the words “four month ‘anniversary.'” I’ll take every victory I get, no matter how small.
Bulworth
Tunch’s death hit me pretty hard, and I wasn’t even his owner or ever met him. But I felt like I knew him through this site. Glad you have Steve to help fill the void.
I require five cats in the house to keep me going.
Jebediah, RBG
@Calming influence:
Good thing you two are buddies. You wouldn’t want to hand a straight line like that to an adversary.
Howard Beale IV
My rescued Persian (!) Ozzie (whose red fur and matching eyes grace the BJ 2013 calendar) turned 10 this year.
That’s one of the reasons why I got a vacuum meant to pick up his fine fur, and it ain’t cheap, but is solidly built (Miele.)
There isn’t a single Dyson that can hack the kind of fur that he throws off, and the idea of using a bagless vac is wrong on so many levels….