Momi the Persian cat

Momi (the pearl)


Momi, a pearl white Persian cat was given to myself and Luann as a wedding gift from our friend Toni in 1986. Momi was a true independent thinker, did what she wanted to, came and went as she pleased, was affectionate when she wanted and aloof when she felt like it. She hated bathing, like most cats I suppose, voted with her claws or should I say talons. Momi did like our dog Nani, they played as good friends play without the racial segregation of dog and cat. She also would wander about the rainforest and the road fronting our house overlooking Kailua Bay as her own little fiefdom.

She brought hours of entertainment into our lives while at home and never missed a meal. Like so many cats she did like to claw on anything that resembled a tree in the jungle, for instance a couch or chair that had upholstery that felt like bark to her I guess. With all her idiosyncrasies she was still the cat we loved.

As life sometimes turns out, Momi outlived our marriage, Luann kept the animals, I moved out of Kailua up north to Puako. I missed the animals, Nani was aging, but still having fun romping around and even taking roadtrips down to Waipio Valley to a friend's cabin near the beach. Momi carried on her declaration of independence and eventually lost an argument with a car on Hualalai Road. Luann called me and asked if I could bury Momi at sea from my small sailing vessel, "Intuition". I was cruising the coast with a friend of mine, Gonzo, at the time. We agreed to meet and pick up Momi at Keauhou Bay. Luann sadly brought our little pearl down to the boat wrapped in a white bed sheet. We got a couple of lava rocks to weight the burial wrap, we didn't want anything floating back up to the surface.

So Gonzo and I sailed south to Kealakekua Bay, where Luann had requested Momi be laid to rest on the deep purple waters off this pristine shore. With a final aloha we lowered Momi overboard and watched as her white sheet disappeared deeper and deeper into the cobalt colored waters. She was gone, never to be seen again except in our fond memories, we thought…

I had been doing some singlehanded sailing at that time, taking the time to give some thought to where I was headed to in this new direction, single handing the helm of life also. On one such sail about five days after burying Momi, I was sailing in light breezes off Puako (thirty –five miles north of Kealakekua Bay), in the distance I noticed what appeared to be a boat fender floating. I headed over in that direction to pass close by, as the hull approached the floating object I saw that indeed it was not a fender, it was fuzzy, white and bloated, and there was an unmistakable odor, a stench. There she was, a pearl white Persian cat, there was no doubt in my mind that Momi had escaped the shroud of linen, loosed the lava rocks and bobbed to the surface, drifting for the better part of a week and intersecting my course. I tacked the "Intuition" to have one more look and yelled an admonishing "MOMI" no! As in her life, she continued after her death to defy order, logic, or reason and do just as she pleased, strangely enough I lived only two blocks from where I found her drifting in the current.