This is in memory of our cat, Ms. Wally, who died on this day in 2015.

I’ll start this story at the beginning.

It began on Saturday morning, January 24, 1998. We were driving from Kaaawa into downtown Honolulu to attend an auction run by friends, and hit unusual stop-and-go traffic on Kahelili Highway just Kaneohe-side of Temple Valley Shopping Center. We could see that cars in the line in front of us were veering out into the other lane to avoid something in the road. When we got to the front of the line, we were shocked to see a tiny gray/brown kitten in the middle of the lane of traffic, facing off with the oncoming cars.

Meda jumped out, snatched up the kitten, and hurried back to the car. The kitten huddled in her lap as we slowly proceeded. But down just a short way ahead, another car had pulled over out of traffic and the driver was standing alongside his car holding a second kitten.

We stopped, and he told me that someone had been driving along and dropping kittens out of a moving car.

“What should I do?” he asked, holding up the kitten.

“We picked up another kitten and are taking it to our vet right now,” I said, “so we’ll take it.” Luckily, he willingly gave up custody and handed us Kitten #2.

Meda held the two kittens, and off we went see our vet, Doug Hooks, who had an office just across the hall from the Times Supermarket back in the shopping center. And that was it. They were now part of the family.

We named the first kitten, the one with some brown coloring, Kili, a nod to the spot on Kahekili Highway where we had found her. The other kitten, gray with a bit longer fur, we named Wally, for the set of Wallace flatware that we had intended to bid on at the auction.

Wally collapsed in our kitchen and died on July 9, 2015, just five weeks before we moved from Kaaawa to what had been my parents’ home in Kahala. Kili was one of five cats that made the move from Kaaawa to Kahala with us. She lived to 19. But that’s another story.

And, for the record, here‘s a slide show of photos taken during Wally’s long life. Yes, it’s too long, but you can skip ahead at any time.