with great sadness
Mood:  sad
Topic: Now that we're home.
rom: Genice Jacobs <genice@profluence.net>
Date: June 3, 2007 11:12:48 PM PDT
To: Genice Jacobs <genice@profluence.net>
Subject: with great sadness

Dear family and friends,

With great love and sadness, I announce the passing this past week of my dear kitty cat son Sunkissed AKA "kister", AKA "kisterooni" AKA "sunny" Jacobs.

Sunkissed and I forged a family on Friday, October 13, 1995.  I adopted him from a somewhat eccentric guy in Oakland named Mark who had a passion for cat rescue.  He had somewhere around 15-20 cats in his smoke filled house, including Sunkissed and his seemingly vicious feral birthmother.  Sunkissed was about 8 weeks old when we met and fully infested with flees.  But, he was really cute and clearly needed a good home.  So after a battery of tests and immunizations, we ventured back over the bay bridge and started our life together in San Francisco.

We (I) used to enjoy our trips to the park and walks in Pacific Heights on weekends.  I once took him to have his picture taken on Santa's lap.  I could tell, even as a kitten, that Sunkissed was exceptionally bright.  He had a habit of knocking my computer mouse off the table and steeling the tracking ball.  Eventually, we were forced to move from our apartment on Broderick (lower Pacific Heights), when I inadvertently left a bag of cat litter in the laundry room giving away the secret that I had an "illegal" cat.  With the threat of eviction, I put Sunkissed on a plane to LA to stay with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Eddie, while I settled us into a new flat.  As good luck would have it, I ended up finding a fabulous place in a really cool neighborhood (Cole Valley) with Golden Gate Bridge views and a bit lower rent.  We found ourselves some more roommates (2 humans, 2 cats) and settled in for a few years.  The Cole Valley place had a fabulous backyard that backed up to other neighbor's yards and Sunkissed enjoyed having a run the land.  I used to call him when I would get home.   He would run as fast as he could across two yards, up and down fences and up two flights of stairs.  I recall Sunkissed learning the facts of life as he once observed two raccoons mating.  He was mesmerized.

After being in the Cole Valley flat for a couple of years, the owner informed us that she would be selling the building.  By this point, rents in San Francisco had skyrocketed and I was staring down the option of paying more for a lot less place or tagging onto someone else's leased apartment.  Since Sunkissed had a tendency for unprovoked attacks (mostly biting me), I decided my safest bet was to try to buy a house rather than risking being kicked out again.  So, that's how we ended up buying a home in Oakland, which turned out to be a fortunate move.   In 1999, at my mother's suggestion of a way to tame Sunkissed's attacks, I a brother for him and that's how Jupiter came to join our family.  Within 48 hours of Jupiter's arrival, Sunkissed stopped attacking me for good.  He and Jupiter were great buddies, grooming each other and wrestling like mad.  I never could tell who was the dominant cat.  Sunkissed was always very good with Jiana... never once attacking her.. even though she taunted him with her screams.   Sunkissed was a ruthless pillow hog, and would always monopolize the lion share of my pillow real estate.  The three of them (Sunkissed, Jupiter and Jiana), used to tag team it taking turns waking me up at all hours.

Over the years, Sunkissed not only saw me through a few moves, he saw me through my grandparents passing, my parent's divorce, multiple career changes, countless relationship false starts, Jiana's arrival, a hideous landslide, knee surgery, and  the entry of Ron, Danielle and Jonah to our lives.

The last year was a tough one for Sunkissed as he first fought bone cancer and lost his leg and later developed an aggressive form of skin cancer in his eye.  While I miss him terribly and am heartbroken by his departure, I am glad that he is out of pain and hopefully frolicking in grasses of heaven.  May he rest in peace.

Love Genice