"Benzn" Krystall’s Big Ben

One afternoon in March 1984, I got a phonecall from a friend. I had been looking for a persian, a blue female kitten, for quite some time. My biggest problem was, in fact, the money. A persian was more expensive than I had managed to save, but I had decided that, somehow, I would get around that problem. Well, anyway, my friend called and asked me if I wanted to adopt a persian. It was a black male, and he was one year old. The people, who owned him, couldn’t have him any longer.

A one year old black male, isn’t exactly a blue female kitten, but it was still a persian, and he was free. I didn’t need much time to consider, but I needed my parents’ permission. They said it was OK, and of we went to pick up my new cat. And was that a shock.

He was huge and fat. He weighed 11.7 kg, his coat was knotted, and he couldn’t even jump up in to the sofa. He needed a diet and grooming, and he needed it badly. I managed to get an experienced persian breeder to help me with his coat, and soon he was looking very nice. In regards to his weight, it came of little by little. Soon he could get up on the sofa without our help; he even conquered the windows!

The first night he was with us, he slept in my bed (as he did all the following nights of his life) As usual I was reading before I went to sleep. Benzn was comfortably resting by my feet. It was time to go to sleep, and I turned out the lights. SWOSH!!! I suddenly had Benzn around my neck. It turned out that he was afraid of the dark! A huge cat as himself, he has in his time scared the living daylights out of many a brave man, but till his dying day, he was always afraid of the dark.

In our house lived mom, dad, my sister, I, and a housecat named Mossi. She was a dainty, black and white member of the feline female kind. Benzn tried to convince her that he was the perfect mate for her, but Mossi never seemed to agree with him, on that point. So a while after Benzn came to us, he started telling everyone that he was an eligible male. You could smell it everywhere. So of to the vet with Benzn, and thirty minutes later, he was not so eligible as he used to be.

Finally he became a hero in Mossi’s eyes. Whenever she was exhausted from "running with the guys", she would come running to Benzn, and he would chase off the pursuers. You see, Benzn was a strange one, if he was all alone in the garden, and one of the many strays in the neighbourhood came, Benzn would run and hide. But if there was anyone to protect, he never yielded an inch.

All this flirting by Mossi had to result in something, and Oct. 22^nd 1985, she had a litter. Mossi got sick towards the end of her pregnancy, so when the kitten were old enough, dad took Mossi to the vet for her final journey. Mom decided to keep one of the kittens. The others moved of to new homes. The one who stayed with us was a large blue male, who got the name Garfield.

Benzn clearly missed Mossi, but he was quite happy with his new friend. Garfield also needed protection from the stray males in the area, and the two of them divided their responsibilities. Garfield was the boss whenever they were inside the house, and as soon as they got outside, Benzn was the boss there.

Benzn and Garfield

Being outside, Garfield would do a perfect imitation of his mother. As soon as he spotted a stray cat, he would run to Benzn for shelter. Benzn would , as always, chase them off.

Being inside, Garfield would bother Benzn as much as he could. Whenever Benzn got curled up in a chair of a sofa, or whatever, to doze off, Garfield would be there in an instant. He would start with washing Benzn’s ears, which is kind enough, but then he would proceed with biting his head and neck. If Benzn, by then still were lying in the chair, Garfield would try to disassemble him. Finally Benzn abandon the chair , leaving it to Garfield, and to go to find another place to take his nap. If Garfield were in a good mood, he would leave it with this. If, on the other hand, he was bored, or something had upset him, he would wait for a few minutes, and then start the whole show all over again. Garfield could do anything to Benzn, I don’t think Benzn ever saw him as an adult. For one reason or another, Garfield got the nickname "Gadaffi"……

Benzn was my faithful companion for many years, until one day in February 1989, when we had to make that difficult trip to the vet.  Benzn was almost six years old, and it was way to soon for me to say goodbye.   But there was no way arround it.  He was the first one of my cats to go to the Rainbow Bridge.  Later he has been joined by Cleo and Minnelli, but I think he will be at the front when they come running towards me one day.

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This page was last updated 22. March 2006