#lotti

It starts with death.

This week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. Lotti , the “A” cat, has crossed the rainbow bridge at 17 after having struggled with kidney issues for a while.

Thank you to everyone who made her silly comic fly high for the past few weeks one final time !

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her to look at and enjoy while I grieve.

I've been thinking about how and when Lotti died and there's obviously very little to go on but this is what I got so far and I'm really curious to hear what other ppl's theories are about how she died, so I'm putting it all in a post. First off, how: As others have pointed out, she does bring to mind the classic drowned-girl-from-"The Ring"-vibe. Then the moat would be a logical place for her to have drowned. But since the rest of her clothing and the bear don't seem to be wet, maybe that's not it? (Could also just be that they didn't want to put the actress through having wet clothes on in every scene she's in) Another option would be that she died from a disease, like Jermima. In that case her hair wouldn't be wet but just greasy from having been sick in bed for a while before she died. That would also explain why she's barefoot and why her nightgown/dress is kinda grimy. Maybe she was sleep walking when she died, and that's why she's barefoot and potentially in a nightgown. But then, if you stay how you died, wouldn't she still be sleep walking as a ghost? Looking at the state her teddy bear is in, it makes me think that Lotti's probably had it for a good while. Maybe she was poor and her parents couldn't afford to get her a new one, maybe she just cuddled it to pieces bc it was he favourite (but then why doesn't it seem to have been mended at all?) Maaaybe she got attacked by a dog who got to her bear and then trying to get it back from the dog she died somehow? And then the when: The "Maikäfer flieg" song can't be dated exactly anymore, since it's been around for so long and in so many variations. Some historians date is as far back as the early 1600s tho. The wedding march that she hums, Richard Wagner's "Treulich geführt", dates back to 1850. She could maaaybe have died earlier and picked it up later as a ghost tho. Would not be my first guess tho. Now, the classic teddy bear was invented in 1902. The one Lotti has, isn't a plush one, but rather a knitted or crocheted one. It could technically be possible that a relative made it for her before the commercial plush ones were introduced, but I still think this is our most concrete date for her. To me she died after the early 1900s. Anyway, if anyone who's smarter than me about historical clothing has another idea about the dress/nightgown that could help us narrow down the time she potentially lived at, feel free to add to this post~