Akiyata

Our little Akiyata was missing since Thursday night so TBU put up posters around the neighborhood this morning. We got a call a few hours ago from a neighbor who Aki would hang out with. She asked us to come over because she had bad news.

She told us that her roommates found Aki in the parking lot bleeding from his face, he had been hit by a car. They took him to the emergency vet to be put to sleep.

I’m so grateful someone who loved him found him and took him to be put to sleep because this would be so much worse if the last image I had of him was of watching him suffer through severe head trauma.

His name is from Return of the Jedi when Princess Leia and a team of Rebel Fighters are racing through the forest of Endor on speeders, fighting Storm Troopers, then a band of Ewoks defeats the Storm Troopers saving the Rebel Fighters. One of the Ewoks raises his spear and with his cute little Ewok face yells something resembling, “Akiyata!”

That was the first time I saw the movie and after a week of triumphantly yelling, “Akiyata!” for no apparent reason we found this tiny feral gray fluff dodging cars in a busy parking lot. TBU went up to him and got an adorable sandpaper lick. That was it. I tried to convince the Teebs that we couldn’t keep him because we already had two cats. But he was too fucking cute and quickly got named Akiyata. That was three days before I graduated college and I always thought of him as my graduation present.

He was never fully domesticated, he spent most of his time outside bossing the neighborhood around. Anywhere he sat he was guarding whatever was behind him. He drank out of the toilet and when he was done he would block the door, if we tried to walk over him he bat at our ankles. He didn’t like to be held and only recently began tolerating being pet. But he came when we called and was incredibly sweet to strangers. It wasn’t a surprise to find out our neighbors befriended him.

He was incredibly beautiful and regal looking, something that was ironic since we found him as an abandoned kitten in a parking lot. His sense of entitlement was endearing and we called him Proud Prince Akiyata when he was looking particularly handsome or was especially demanding.

He was getting sweeter and sweeter all the time. The night before the accident he was asleep at our feet letting us pet him. Teebs and I could not get over how cute he was and how sweet he was being. We commented how lucky we were that he was so awesome. The next day I saw him asleep on top of a car when I came home from work. I thought it was strange that he didn’t follow me in like normal but he was feral at heart and fairly unpredictable so I didn’t think much more of it. That was the last time either of us saw him.