This week marked a new and rather sad chapter in my life. After twenty years, I had to say goodbye to my cat Francis
Francis deciding the fate of Yankee Stadium
who I had the pleasure of owning since he was born in my parents’ apartment. When I say owned, I mean that I took care of him and fed him and all that, you cannot really ever own a cat like you would a toy. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you or mean to their cat(s).
The reason I am bringing this up in a place where I ramble on about baseball is that for almost all of my baseball watching life, when I watched a game at home I watched it with him. When I sat down on the couch Tuesday night to watch Javier Vazquez take on the Orioles it was the first time in about ten years that I took in a game in my home without him sitting next to or near me. It was a little disconcerting and I reached over at least once to pet him only to remember that he wasn’t there.
In 1996 when the Yankees were making their World Series run, I was 15 and absolutely convinced that the only way the Yankees were going to win was if Francis was sitting on my lap at all times during the games (he didn’t mind, as my lap was his favorite place to sit). I had convinced myself this was the key to the Rangers’ Stanley Cup run in 1994 and logic be damned I was going to will the Yankees to a championship using the same means. We do silly things to make ourselves feel better when watching sports.
When watching games I would shield my eyes by stuffing my face into Franny’s fur during particularly tense moments. He would often get upset when I yelled at my TV and would give me one of those confused cat faces. When the Yankees lost I would pick him up and carry him around to feel better. He was an instrumental part of helping me keep my sanity over the course of the long season.
You could say I’m in a rebuilding stage right now. The long glorious run of Francis and Leo watching baseball together is over and I’m in an adjustment period. You can’t replace a Hall of Famer and I’ve got plenty of time to figure out what to do, but things are a little weird right now.
Goodbye Franny, you were a great baseball buddy for 20 years.
Francis making a devil face as he contemplates eating Yankee Stadium
Your cat’s picture reminds me of Ignatz my cat who died some years ago. hang in there its tough but with time it gets better. Wait a little while and then give a home to some cat who needs one. Hopefully our boys will start hitting again and win some games give you something positive to look at.
What a lovelyi tribute. I am so sorry that you lost your friend.
My late cat was not fond of watching baseball with me. I once forced him to wear an ice cream helmet (briefly) as a rally cap.
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