fare thee well, spike lee the cat

Jul 12, 2008 by Louis Maistros

The sweet little black cat who had adopted the entire 600 block of Mandeville Street, known to my family as Spike Lee, was hit and killed by some drunken jackass in a truck who mistook our quiet neighborhood for The Douche Bag 500 Speedway. Spike died quickly and hardly bled at all.

Spike was one of those rare “feral” cats that didn’t act feral. We were her first adoptive family when she was a kitten, right after the big storm, so she got used to humans quickly and was very affectionate with strangers. We wanted to make her a house cat, but she would have none of it. She loved to live outside and mooch off all the neighbors on our block, seducing them with her lovey-dovey ways and taking turns choosing her favorite humans to look after her. Everyone liked to think of her as their cat. Because of her many families she went by many names. But she was always Spike Lee to us.

My lovely wife Elly wrote a nice blog entry, much better than my own feeble efforts here, about the life and death of this important little creature. Here is the link to Elly’s tributary entry:

http://waifnola.livejournal.com/1338.html

Elly and her friend Gail run a little neighborhood animal rescue operation known as WAIF (Wandering Animals Insurance Fund). They are trying to gather support and awareness for their cause, so please “friend” Elly on Livejournal, and also on Waif’s Blogger, Myspace and Facebook pages – or visit their brand new website (all these links are at the bottom of this entry). They have their own (and very prolific) spay-neuter-release program for the strays, they foster when needed, and also help indigant folks pay for their vet care among other excellent deeds. They have saved a lot of critters around here, and it makes me very proud of them. Unfortunately, they can’t save them all.

Spike Lee sure was special, and I will really miss her. I like to think I will miss her most of all, but I know there are many people in the neighborhood who will beg to differ.

– Louis Maistros

WAIF links:

http://waifnola.livejournal.com/

http://waifnola.com/

http://www.waifnola.com/blogger.htm

http://www.myspace.com/waifnola

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1111203748