Dear Buster Keaton:
Writing this means it’s real and I have been avoiding this all day. You know your own story, but I am reviewing 16 ½ years with you over and over wishing you were here right now on my desk, taunting dogs.
So indulge me as I tell your story from my perspective….
You lived all 9 lives to the fullest extent and you may have borrowed some from someone because to say you were a daredevil is an understatement. When a human looks into a room, any room, a bedroom, an office, a living room, a hotel room, they see furniture. It makes sense for our sensibility. Buster Keaton, you viewed a room as a parkour course. What I would see as a “chair” you saw as a launch pad to the next height….that next height in human terms is called a desktop!
You took your time looking around a room while dogs are salivating, waiting for your next move to almost catch you. It was always close, but not really. You knew what you were doing. You were calculating it every inch as to how many bounces it took to the top of the bookcase.
You were a friend to anyone who wanted to be your friend, horses, humans, dogs and cats.
There wasn’t a box or bag that came into the house that didn’t get explored and you expected I would pull you around and play bumper cars with chairs.
You were sweet, funny, charming, loving and affectionate. These words are like empty plastic casings compared to the depth of all that you were. I can’t imagine life without you. You were an integral fabric of my being.
Most mornings you woke me by sitting on me purring. When I would sit up to meditate, I loved that you would crawl into my lap for the start of the scalar wave and leading into meditation. You might get bored at some point and move on to grooming all of the dogs.
You were born on the farm in Carnation and moved with me to the ranchette here in Santa Clarita with a brief stop along the way in Rancho Santa Fe. You would tight wire across the second floor balcony and I often found you on the roof. Here on the ranchette, I had to build a catio for your flight! And in Carnation, I had a good relationship with the UPS guy, thankfully, because he got you out of a tree more than once!
You and your brother were inseparable from the beginning. You were close with your mama. You, your brother Henry and your sister Queen Latifah were like Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Becky Thatcher. You of course were Huck Finn.
You were the first to open your eyes and while I think you were looking for your mama, you locked eyes on me and I know for both of us it was love at first sight.
Until we meet again my friend, I will always love you and miss your giant presence in this house.
