On rare occasions when Mom would let me bring Pineapple inside, we would turn the TV to the channel that aired 24/7 footage of fish swimming in an aquarium (weird, looking back). Pineapple would sit in front of the TV for the longest time, ears erect, tail swishing, ready to pounce. We all had a good laugh at Pineapple’s expense when she saw her opportunity and took it, only to be met by a hard glass surface. She would be so confused!! She would back up try again and again to no avail, keeping her entertained for lengthy chunks of time.
Somehow I taught her to play hide and seek with me around the couch, and each of us got a kick out of sneaking up on the other and scaring the daylights out of each other.
When she got older, she learned to signal me from outside when she wanted my attention. She would jump on the screen door in the back and hang there until I went outside to play with her. Sometimes she would hang there so long she would lose her strength and fall down, but after a few seconds, she was right back up again, just waiting for me. Every single time I went out to pick her up, she would close her eyes and would purr loudly as she licked my chin to greet me.
Her best friend besides me was PomPom the Pomeranian. They would chase each other around and play all day long and then cuddle up together next to the back door behind the patio furniture and take naps. One summer PomPom got ticks so bad we had to have him shaved.
When we brought him home, Pineapple didn’t recognize him. PomPom kept trying to play with her and she would arch her back and hiss at him. He was perplexed and devastated: he could not understand why she was being so mean to him! It was a hilariously painful sight to see. Eventually she figured it out and they were in cahoots again. Sidestory, speaking of PomPom: At one time we also had two rabbits, who we thought were either both boys or both girls. I named them after my imaginary friends: Binkie was the big one, Jennifer was the smaller one. Pom Pom never went to be neutered, and, seeing as how we didn’t own any female dogs … he tried taking advantage of just about anything that moved… including the rabbits. EW!! We had to drag that dog off of my poor rabbits so many times that, one day when Mom went out to check on the rabbits and discovered there were newborn babies, confusion over how this could be led her to consider for a split second that some scientific phenomenon had occurred, and we had a mutant cross between dog and rabbit!! It took a moment of clarity for her to realize we had been mistaken about having both males or both females. Binkie was a mama, and Jennifer was a daddy!!
Back to Pineapple, once I went outside to play with her. I scooped her up in my arms and she pushed away from me and jumped out of my arms. What? She wouldn’t have anything to do with me! I tried to pick her up again and she eluded me. I caught her and tried to snuggle her, and she resisted. I was confused and hurt! I went to Mom with a lump in my throat and told her that Pineapple was acting weird and wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I don’t think she believed me at first, but then when she came outside to observe she saw I was telling the truth. After a few moments, she realized I had not put my glasses on and told me to go put them on and come back. When I returned, Pineapple came running to me. I scooped her up and she licked my chin…
Once she disappeared for several weeks. My brothers assured me she had been hit by a car or had been taken out by a dog (either way she wasn’t coming back), but I argued that she had run away, I just couldn’t understand it. I knew she would come back. I just knew it. Every day for weeks I would go outside and call for her and expect her to come running out from under the play house where she often hid. Well, she DID come back one day! She showed up while I was at school. Mom called me out of class, and met me in the office with a rose and a note attached that read:
Mom checked me out early so I could go home to see her. As soon as I got home and swept her up in my arms, she licked my chin for a really long time.
Over the next few weeks she got a lot fatter and it dawned on us that she was about to have babies! One evening I went out to check on her before we went out to eat. She was in the play house, obviously in excrutiating pain. I panicked, not understanding what was happening. Mom explained that she was in labor and would probably have the kittens by the time we came home from eating. My heart was breaking for her. I didn’t want to leave her, but Mom seemed to think she’d do much better if we let her be. She gave birth to her babies in the doll cradle inside the play house. I loved those babies, but they didn’t survive past a couple of months. The vet informed us that they died of pneumonia, a complication from the bigger problem of feline leukemia, which meant they got it from their mama and the disease would eventually claim her too. My brothers thought it was great fun to make little kitten sounds after they were gone, to send Pineapple searching for her babies. I threw crying fits over that. Probably some of the most painful moments of my life were the last minutes alone with her in the vet’s office before they took her back…. Even so, it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Pineapple is one of my most favorite and most vivid memories of 800 S. Bouziden.
-Steph
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