clara's shrine

me googling how to take care of a kitten

since we found him as a baby in october, hes technically an october black cat :3 very special

perfectly sized for the palm of your hand

getting clara was a total accident — not that i didn’t want her or anything! i was actually supposed to pick up another cat i named karma (she lives with a friend now), but the people told me i could take her too!

people (understandably so) seem to think that i named mizu based off the japanese word for water: mizu, but that is not the case!!! you know how when there's a cat nearby ppl just tend to go "pspspsps"? well here in puerto rico we do that but sometimes instead of going "pspspsps" we go "mich mich mich" or "michu michu" to get their atention. so idk i guess 10 year old me really liked that and went ahead and called him "mizu" for the rest of my life.

after getting mizu in out house, i remember a few days later we actually saw the mom cat with her kittens around our backyard. they seemed pretty chill though it was clear the mom cat had no interest in getting mizu back. we had another cat called carmela. she was such a sweet heart. she would visit me while i was at my grandma's and i would feed her these sausages called "carmela" and that's where her name comes from. she seemed to always be around my grandma's so i took her home with me like a few months before finding mizu. all she did was sleep and eat and you know what? slay. but anyway. this is about mizu not carmela. carmela was surprisingly very chill with the new kitten in the house. they would play together sometimes. and i wanna think that carmela helped mizu a lot on "how to cat" since mizu never got to spend a lot of time with his mom. so the things that carmela would do like scratch the nearest tree, lick herself, mizu would go ahead and copy her. i think its very sweet. thanks carmela.

mizu grew up. and very quickly! he mostly spent the time outside, climbing trees, exploring our backyard, chasing lizards and birds... he loved it. i grew up in a very rural place (i was literally surrounded by mountains and trees) so im glad he was able to spend a lot of time outside because of that! and at night he would come home to rest with me. he always kept me company. and he was so warm too. when it was cold i loved putting my hands under his tummy so he would warm them.

mizu has been there through my worst times, and my best times. i've spent 11 years of my life with this cat. and man, do i love him so much. i had to say goodbye to him in 2021 when i moved out sadly. i knew he would be better staying there so instead of putting him through another insufferable airplane ride, i let him stay with my mom. it was a bit hard when i decided to move away. because i knew i couldnt take him with me. but despite the sadness that i feel from missing his meows, his playful aura, at least i have 11 years of memories with him. and no one can take that away from me. as of writing this, this year he will be 13 years old!!!! hes such a big boy!! i hope to visit him sometime in the future. and if anything happens, i am so so so happy i got to watch him grow right beside me and spend my time with such a wonderful cat. my meow meow. love you forever mizu. written on 21.may.23