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Midnight's passing
Published: 12/1/2011 7:43 AM
Last Modified: 12/1/2011 7:43 AM


Midnight preparing for an evening's nap in one of his favorite spots -- the birdbath in our front yard.

Midnight would typically darken our door around 7 p.m.

Of course, that wasn’t the only time for Midnight. But 7 p.m. was pretty much when you could count on a black form moving southward across the front porch.

Then, perhaps a half-hour or so later, it would reverse course and head north.

Midnight was what our neighbors called their cat — a coal-black mongrel tom who more or less owned the territory he regularly paroled in our mid-town neighborhood.

Occasionally we would see other cats come through the yard, always moving quickly and keeping very low to the ground. Obviously, these trespassers had been confronted by Midnight in the past, and the memories and scars of those meetings had not been forgotten.

Midnight was an inveterate outdoor cat. Once cats establish a territory outside of the house, there’s little one can do to keep them inside. But I think that in Midnight’s case, it might also have been because our neighbors own several dogs, most of whom live indoors. Midnight would rather brave the elements than deal with a bunch of canines.

He visited our place regularly. On warm, sunny days, he liked to stretch out underneath the bench on the front porch for a nap. Or he would curl up in one of the birdbaths to view the passing scene. On dozens of occasions, I would be about to get into the car to go work and be confronted by a very displeased feline face inches from mine, not at all happy that I had disturbed his sleep.

Midnight wasn’t a friendly cat — at least not to those who were not members of what he claimed as his family. His attitude toward my wife and me was one of tolerant suspicion. As long as we kept our distance and didn’t try to do anything foolish like attempt to pet him, he was willing to live and let live.

Some times, when I would be coming home from a show I had to review, I would see Midnight poised like a sphinx on our front door mat. I know it was to him just another comfortable place to snooze, but it always looked to me as if he were standing guard, making sure the house was secure until I had returned.

Other times, I would see him stalking across the street, quite heedless of any traffic. So I was always careful driving down our street late at night. One never knew when Midnight might appear.

Someone else, however, wasn’t so careful. The morning after Thanksgiving, Midnight’s body was found in a neighbor’s driveway, obviously the victim of a passing automobile.

Midnight had lived for 10 years — quite a long time for a cat that spent 90 percent of its life outdoors, and in a neighborhood where in years past, black cats had not fared so well when Oct. 31 came around.

Even so, I’m going to miss him — strolling around on his nightly rounds, or standing sentinel on our front porch. Nights in our neighborhood seem a little bit darker now that Midnight has moved on.






Reader Comments 2 Total
ozarkokie (last year)
RIP, Midnight. Obviously you influenced many lives even if you didn't "belong" to anybody.
222355 (last year)
Thank you so much for such fond words of Midnight, many will miss him.
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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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