biko 1992 to March 20, 2009:

• song: song bird by fleetwood mac
• 4.30.09 biko visits me as a fly. a giant fly laying on our bed. it let me pet it. i somehow felt it was biko.
• it snowed the morning biko passed
• biko is named after anti-apartheid activist Stephen Bantu Biko who peter gabriel sang about.
• she has the sweetest meow ever known.
• we always described her as the "ideal" cat because she is quite perfect.
• i nursed biko to health once when i was in college and she was very sick. the only time she has ever been sick.
• biko always comes when you say her name and my favorite was when she would run to me.
• she has the eyes of an angel. very green and sweet.
• her nicknames are: beeker, beeks, bikola
• every morning biko comes onto the breakfast table and i give her a small spoon full of milk. she liked the ritual.
• biko loves to wipe her face on the corners of walls.
• biko loves a belly rub while making biscuits in the sky.
• after biko poops, she likes to go for a run around the house in celebration.
• she makes a little chin nod when you walk into the room, like hey what's up.
• biko liked to be rubbed under her armpits and she would do biscuit making motions
• we liked to turn the lights on after she had been napping in darkness. she had really funny wake up sleepy eyes.
• i adopted biko from the san francisco SPCA. she had been found in a cardboard box with her brother in some alley. on the car ride home she hid under my car seat.

ripley 1998 to july 17, 2008:

• song: looking through the facets by bibio
• her nickname was ripples and sassy pants.
• she would bite our elbows to wake us up to play with her.
• we'd puff up her neck fur sometimes to make her look like she had a crew cut.
• ripley was the most cuddling-in-bed cat on earth.
• ripley is named after lieutenant ripley from Aliens because she was so afraid of the world. we wanted to inspire her to kick butt.
• she survived being hit by a car on college ave in 2001 and we nursed her back to health. she did, however, lose an eye and some teeth. she seemed very thankful.
• she has rabbit fur.
• she slept with us almost every night and took over the bed.
• she was afraid of feet.
• she always tried to pet my face with her paws.
• she loved to headbutt you as a sign of affection.
• she was a feral cat found by the railroad tracks in downtown oakland. justin introduced us to her.
• she was about 11 years old.
• she has pink paw pads and adam and i forever debated on whether she was gray or beige.
• she has a tiny meow.
• she loved to hang in her own private closet with her own pillow.

raju 1994 to oct 2005:

• song: naked as we came by iron and wine
• her nickname was raj-er and rajee.
• she loved to escape and get caught places and the cry for rescue.
• adam liked to do the machine gun trick with her which was really funny.
• she loved to climb into ANYthing no matter how small. she once climbed into a shoe box and looked like a little cat muffin.
• she would growl at the mailman a few seconds before we even knew he was coming to the door.
• she was incredibly social and loved to hang in large crowds.
• it always looked like she wanted to speak english. she would concentrate on your words really hard.
• she, at least i think, liked to watch me dance and sing to her.
• she was a bona-fide lap cat and would totally crawl onto you all the time.
• i interviewed with two women who had their own pet rescue in order to receive raju.
• raju would always get into a lot of trouble and was definitely an explorer.
• raju liked to climb into and ride in any new shopping bag.
• one time raju ate adam's birthday cake and got sick for a few days with a belly ache.

Poem for my Cats:

I like to see the dust particles / In the sunlight / From our bed / The glistening speckles / They take shape / In my mind / I try to catch a glimpse of you / As the light reflects their passing by / But it's too hard to tell / The tears blind my eyes / All things come to an end / But we open and close doors / Breaks in our path we mend / But I shall look for you / In the snowflakes so much larger / For i am close behind you / And though your name / May come to my tongue less / And your presence i remember / Only in the days i've chosen / I have screamed your name today / So that it will echo back to me / The day you return into my arms to rest and all is frozen