VITAL STATISTICS

Name: Alice Price-Healy Liddel Little Abernathy McGuire
Date of Birth: December 19th, 2008
Date of Death: February 13th, 2018
Breed: Maine Coon
Color: Blue classic tabby with white

BIO

Alice Price-Healy Liddel Little Abernathy McGuire (commonly called "Alice" or "Ally" or "Princess Puffy Pants," registered as Pinecoon's Alice Price-Healy) was a blue classic tabby and white Maine Coon. She was my first non-Siamese pedigreed cat, and was acquired ostensibly because there were no Classic Siamese kittens to be had on the West Coast when I came into the market for a new kitten (there weren't), but really because I suffered from a horrible case of love at first sight.

Alice and I met when I was doing a casual cattery visit to Pinecoon Maine Coons, owned by Dave and Betsy Tinney, in the Seattle area. They're friends of mine, and since I was a guest in their house, they asked if I wanted to see kittens. Of course I wanted to see kittens! That was when I learned that a) Maine Coons come in blue (my optimal cat color), and b) one of her three-week-old kittens was a little blue girl. Victory to Betsy and her glorious giant cats.

What I had not told people when I went to the Pacific Northwest for that trip was that I had come to say goodbye. I was in a very bad place, both personally and emotionally, and I was done. Everything was terrible; I didn't want to be here anymore. I didn't want to be anywhere anymore. I was intending to return to California and kill myself. Instead, I returned to California and began making preparations for Alice. She saved my life. She gave me something to hang onto until things could get better, and bringing her home began a period of things getting better, very quickly. Without this cat, I would have died in late 2008. She was the best argument I could find to stay.

Alice's color may strike people as a odd at first; it definitely struck me as odd, since I didn't realize Maine Coons came in any color other than the traditional brown tabby. It turns out Maine Coons come in all sorts of amazing colors, although brown tabby remains both the most common and the most popular. Some of their color patterns are drop-dead gorgeous (although I, of course, think the blues are the best). Maine Coons have always been bred for size, but many people aren't aware that they're also bred for intelligence, sturdiness, and a sweet, family-oriented disposition. They're amazing cats.

Alice was born December 19th, 2008, at Pinecoon Maine Coon Cats, located in Seattle, Washington. Pinecoon has since stopped breeding, but they had a history of producing absolutely gorgeous cats, and Alice's litter was no exception. Her sire was SGC Coondalay Macallan of Pinecoon (Callan), and her mother is GC Pinecoon's Hootenanny (Arial). Neither of her parents is actually blue, because cat genetics are awesome, but both of her parents are sweet, endearing, absolutely fabulous cats. Alice officially became part of my household in April 2009.

The pictures along the side show Alice at a variety of stages. The first was taken at three weeks, when we were first introduced (and I learned that Maine Coons come in blue). The second picture shows her at eight weeks, when her eyes and coat had begun to really demonstrate her heritage. The third picture was taken at fourteen weeks of age, when she was ready to leave the cattery, and had become large enough to have her own gravitational field. The fourth picture was taken a few weeks after she moved in with me, and shows her usual level of dignity. In the final picture, taken by Tony Fabris, Alice is nine months old, and has grown into her adult coat. I will be adding more pictures shortly.

As she grew, Alice matured into a true gem of a cat, for all that she had the usual assortment of Maine Coon quirks. She enjoyed playing in the water; her favorite toys included my big metal baking bowl (full of water), the bathtub (full of water), and the toilet (full of water). Her toilet-shark tendencies led to my bathroom having the strangest visitor's advisory pretty much ever. She also adored her squid-on-a-string, the pumpkin-orange cat tree, and Thomas, who was her constant companion. She was never a lap-cat, but would happily hang out in the room with you for hours, just enjoying human company. Her favorite place was next to me, either on the couch watching television or in the bed, next to my pillow.

In any just universe, Alice would have been one of those cats who lived to be twenty-five and senile, toddering through the house and howling because she was too deaf to hear herself. Unfortunately, this is not a just world, and on July 3rd, 2017, Alice was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma, an inoperable form of feline cancer. The previous version of this page said I couldn't imagine life without her. Well, that was the day I had to start.

We did seven months of oral chemotherapy, but on February 13th, 2018, Alice lost her unwinnable battle and passed into the clearing at the end of the path. I know she's waiting for me there. She isn't crossing any rainbow bridges without me. All she ever wanted was to be with.

But oh, Great Pumpkin, I wish she were with me here.

So that was Alice. Maybe someday I'll be able to take this page down; maybe someday I'll be able to be okay with the idea that I live in a world where any mention of her is written in the past tense. But she took my heart with me when she went, and I'm still waiting for her to give it back. Baby, I miss you.