Since I was a small child I disliked cats. I always preferred dogs by far. My Father disliked them and eventually infected into my young mind to think the same as well. It's not as if I would hurt them, not at all. I would just chase them every chance that I got or if I saw one down the street, I would run after it, failing my arms wildly and screaming like a gladiator before a battle. But I must say, my neighbor's cats might have played a role as well. She has about four and they are vicious, crude things. They attacked me and made me bleed whenever I reached to pet them. But, this all changed when my sister brought home a kitten. She brought him home unexpectedly so my parents had no choice but to keep the kitten. She brought him a few blocks over where they were giving away free kittens. He was barely only a few weeks old. He looked like a tiny, fragile, snowball, completely covered in pure white fur except for the small blotches that looked as if someone had dropped onyx ink on him. His eyes at first were a soft gray which eventually turned into a iridescent yellow. At the time, I had no idea that this small feline was to bring me such happiness and change my views on the feline species forever.

His name was Gunji. My sister named him after her favorite band member at the time. I thought it was a ridiculous name, but she was adamant about it, so it stayed this way. At first whenever I called Gunji, I would think about the singer not the kitten. But now its the opposite, whenever I say his name I think about the lovable cat. He had a cool and calm demeanor. But when he first arrived, he wanted to experience everything. He explored every nook and cranny in the house. There wasn't a single place where he did not look. I gave him the nickname, "Captain Adventurer." He was quite lazy, whenever he wasn't cuddling with us or meowing for us to pay attention to him, he would spend his time sleeping. I remember when he was in my room once, I fell asleep on my bed while petting Gunji. I was on my stomach with my arm up near my head. I woke up to Gunji trying to burrow his head under my arm so I would hug him. We eventually let him spend his time outside the house with the neighborhood cats. I called him once so that he could come in for the night and I saw he was with a female cat. Instantly, when I called him over he ignored the female and made his merry way towards me. But the female did not like to be ignored, so she ran and stood in front of him so as not to let him leave. He merely slapped her across the face with his paw and continued his walk.

We had him for about a full year before it happened to him. Gunji became severely ill. At first, he tried to hide the fact that he was sick (according to the veterinarian.) Gunji did not want me to worry about him. The first sign of trouble was when he spent an entire day with his tongue out. I did think this was strange but thought nothing of it and pushed it away. Gunji eventually started to not eat or drink and he would breath in very short and quickly. As if it was hard to even attempt to do so. We could not afford to bring Gunji to the veterinarian since my family is not the richest. I did try to save him though. Despite what you might think, I desperately did try. I fed my Gunji food that resembled baby food because of its soft texture and fed him water as best as I could. I never left his bedside except for at night when I had to sleep. My brother would stay up during this time and watch over him. This continued for three days. Gunji suffered for three long, agonizing days. We couldn't take his pain anymore. On the fourth day, we planned to take him to the veterinarian to get him the proper treatment, no matter how much it would cost us. That night, on the third day, he left us. His pain and illness ended and so did his life. My mother woke me up in the morning crying. The words that she knew she had to say to me, wouldn't come out of her mouth. Her eyes were red and puffy, tears streaming down her face like a river. I knew at that moment that Gunji was dead. His fight had ended. Maybe at that moment I wanted to believe that she was crying about something else, or that the fact that my best friend had died didn't quite sink into my horror stricken mind. I hate crying and I try to avoid it at anytime that I can so no tears came. I managed to hold them back. But once I walked into my brother's room and saw his small lifeless body, and I looked into his eyes that were once alive with color now drained of his essence, they stared back at me, and I couldn't hold back the tears. I cried. For how long I couldn't remember. I picked him up expecting him to come to life and snuggle with me as he always did, but to no avail. I cried even harder. We took him to the veterinarian to see what had caused his death. My parents found out but they wouldn't tell me. They said it was better this way. At one point, he left his position from my brother's bed to go into the garage and he hid behind the washing machine. The veterinarian later when I asked why he did this, they said it was because he knew he was going to die. He wanted to save us the grief of losing him. He didn't want us to see him so vulnerable and fragile. He wanted us to remember him when he was alive, not at his time of dying.

Some people might think that I am being over dramatic because it's just a dumb cat. But their wrong. He meant a lot to me. I loved Gunji. He was always there for me. When I was feeling blue, he would meow and lick my tears as if saying that everything would be alright, and I would believe him. Even when I was content he would fill me with more happiness, that I would feel as if I would explode. He was the sweetest cat that I have ever encountered. Gunji was intelligent and he understood what I said to him, even if he couldn't speak my language. Now at home, I can't even mention his name because everyone becomes depressed. His name is taboo. But to not speak of him, I feel that I'm forgetting him. I feel as if everyone has forgotten about the good memories that we all shared together. He left an impact in my life and even my father's. We loved him and soon I started to love cats in general. To this day cats are my favorite animals. Even though Gunji is gone, I will never forget him. He was my first cat and it took me a whole entire year to even consider getting another kitten. Once I did I realized that no other cat could replace him, not now and not ever.