The one, the only, the chubbiest, Wasabi
I never was the biggest fan of cats…. That is until I started work as an Adoption Counselor for the Animal Adoption Center in November of 2015. Each day, while cleaning Kitty City I became more and more enamored and mystified by these meowing, captivating little sass-pots!
In the winter of 2016, the AAC pulled a cat named Mama from Lucky’s Place of SV. Lucky’s named her that because, well, she was a kitten producing machine back in her unspayed days on the loose. She came with one of them, a shy fluffy black male, she a curvaceous, well proportioned, green-eyed tabby.
If you pay attention to when new cats come along, the AAC staff typically sticks to a naming theme, and Amanda must’ve been jones’ing for sushi that day, because Wasabi was selected for her and Edamame for her son.
I spent 4 mornings a week with Wasabi, she meowed, I mopped. She always seemed very content in Kitty City, never stressed. She was the type of cat who let you hold her like a baby and would gently place her paws on your cheeks to bring you closer to her mother. During Wasabi’s time at the center, Meowga was born, and oh my cats, did this little unicorn shine when the Meowga commenced! She felt that everyone who attended was there to strictly see her and she didn’t want anyone burning any calories during her class.
A few weeks after Wasabi’s debut as a yogi-cat she fell ill. She was separated from the other cats while on meds and staff surveillance. This is where us staff learned her love for running water. Anytime you visited her (in the bathroom) she would boss you right over to the sink to turn it on for her. My fiancé was a die-hard crazy cat man and had been campaigning around our household that we get a cat… even though he was allergic. I decided this was the chance- Wasabi was my favorite, and she needed to be quarantined from the other kitties anyways, so if it didn’t work out, she at least got to go on a field trip to get better. We took her home right as the cottonwoods came into pre-summer bloom, so needless to say Dave had a rough week. After 7 days of new cat having/ sneezing, eyes watering, meowing, bliss Dave’s allergies went away and Wasabi was there to stay!
Wasabi was what everyone’s’ first feline should be: smart and resourceful, loving, hilarious, moldable and foldable, and absolutely memorable. During the hottest week of the summer she figured out that the coffee table in front of the fan was the best for napping (while her brother laid beneath the table… simple dog). She was a force to the neighboring canines who dared to trespass on her lawn, and started each day with gratitude for the world and lapping up gallons of water from Flat Creek. We unfortunately lost Wasabi suddenly just over a year after we brought her home. Her ashes now live where she used to love to lay and stare at us while we watched TV… directly next to the TV. She opened up our hearts to having a feline family member and paved the way for another to enter our hearts and home, but none will ever fill the Sab’s sized void in our hearts.
