PORT TOWNSEND — In his recent collection, poet John Delaney details the simple and rhythmic patterns of his relationship with Ramen, an elderly Himalayan cat.
“It was only when I retired and spent 24/7 with a cat that I realized so much more exists in these little beings,” Delaney said in an interview.
The collection, “Catechisms,” captures a series of small joys, details and episodes, depicting Delaney and Ramen’s domestic partnership.
Now 75, Delaney called the book a tribute to his love for animals.
Every poem is paired with one or more photographs of the long-furred cat. Delaney photographed almost all of the photos in the book. One exception is a series of photos that goes with “The Cat Hotel.” The photos were taken by Theresa Berrett, owner of Creature Comforts Cat Hotel in Port Townsend, where Ramen stayed during Delaney’s trips.
“Catechisms” was published late last year by Finishing Line Press and can be purchased at tinyurl.com/5axafpm7. The book costs $24.99 before shipping and also is available on Amazon, with a few copies remaining at the Humane Society of Jefferson County.
Delaney, who has at least 17 books published, including a number on maps and six or seven collections of poetry, spent 35 years working in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Princeton University Library.He was head of manuscripts processing for 20 years and curator of historic maps for 15 more
Delaney and his wife Evelyn Delaney moved to Port Townsend in 2016 after he retired the previous year.
A lifelong animal lover, Delaney aspired to be a veterinarian earlier in life. He and his wife raised seeing-eye Labradors for years. He even worked at a veterinarian clinic in graduate school.
When they moved to Port Townsend, Delaney got his animal fix by volunteering to walk the dogs at the humane society on a weekly basis.
After he suffered a heart attack in 2020, Delaney realized it wasn’t safe for him to continue the walks. With Evelyn spending much of her year in New Jersey and wanting the company, he decided to adopt a cat.
Soon after he adopted Ramen from an online ad, Delaney learned the cat had Stage 3 renal failure. After visiting the humane society, where Ramen resided before the previous owner, Delaney learned he was not 6 years old, as the previous owner had told him. He was 14.
The renal failure, which eventually commenced to Stage 4, meant Ramen vomited often and consumed more water than Delaney.
“He didn’t act sick. He was a playful, very curious kitty,” Delaney said.
In a poem called “Bubble Wrap,” Delaney describes the joyful activity of Ramen playing in a cardboard box filled with the packing material.
“How well the medium inspires play!” Delaney wrote. “… He shames me to find joy in little things. His walnut brain more curious than mine.”
In “Cat Karaoke,” Delaney describes the yowling song that Ramen sang when, early in the morning, he wanted breakfast.
Ramen would start in the kitchen and work his way down the hall to Delaney’s open door. Delaney would hush him. Then Ramen would try a gentler tact, jumping onto the bed, to Delaney’s side or on his chest. Purring, he would nudge Delaney’s “imponderable form of resistance” — his body.
“That works. Okey-dokey,” Delaney wrote.
Another poem specifies the hour when Ramen took to singing as 5 a.m.
The book, which tracks Ramen’s idiosyncrasies, also is about Delaney, and, if anything, is about the way the two held each other through a passage of three years.
In a poem titled “Wishful Watching,” Delaney observes Ramen curiously watching him while he makes the bed, threads his belt-loops, washes dishes and twists the knob on the washing machine. He wonders if the cat is a little envious of his many talents.
Delaney assures him, “You have talents, too, that I’ve observed and envy, so don’t begrudge yourself.”
“Ramen, the Brahmin,” sees Delaney talking to Ramen again, something that confirmed was a regular practice; one that benefits the speaker and the listener.
“How your black-hole stare snares me in its gravity!” Delaney wrote. “Have we lived love fairly? I must bear the silence of your knowing where we’re going. Prepare me.”
Last November, after “Catechisms” was published, Ramen, who had stopped eating and playing, was euthanized in Delaney’s home.
“You know, what they do is they give the cat a shot, so he goes to sleep,” Delaney said. “And then a second shot to stop the heart.”
Losing Ramen came with significant impact for Delaney, who said the grief was terrible.
“It was very sad,” he said. “There’s an emotional support that an animal gives you. I am mostly here with just a cat.”
Soon after Ramen died, Delaney decided to adopt another elderly cat, the 15-pound Rasputin, whom Delaney refers to as Putin.
Ramen is irreplaceable, Delaney said. Adopting Putin was a step toward something new.
Delaney said he hopes people who have yet to adopt an animal will make room in their hearts to do so.
Putin is a totally different cat who Delaney is getting to know on his own terms.
“When I’m sitting or lying down, he’s a lover boy, but he gets kind of angry when I want to feed him,” Delaney said. “He wants to eat all the time, and he goes at my feet, hissing and growling at my feet. Really strange. When I’m in bed at night, he wants to sleep next to my head or on my chest. He gets me up around 4 in the morning by sitting on a pillow with his head over my head, purring, and takes his paws and gently rubs my face saying, ‘Look, time to get up, I’m hungry.’ I’m not getting great sleep right now.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
