12/05/2025
🐈🐾Garcia “Gar- Gar” Griggs 🐾🐈
2018-2025
Please help me honor the life of the one and only
Garcia, or “Gar-Gar” as most knew her, was discovered the only survivor of her litter and lovingly nursed to health by her mother, Gracie Griggs. Found in late July of 2018, at only four weeks old she more than likely shared a birthday with her mom, so they always celebrated it together. All the women in Gracie’s family are born in June, so they immediately shared an ineffable bond. She was so small, a tiny ball of fluff more hair than cat, but her heart was massive. After a rocky start Garcia grew into a lively, vocal, and unmissable personality, just like her mom in every way.
I met them in the Fall of 2019. Garcia was still just barely a kitten, and I was smitten by her and her mother immediately. They did everything together. Garcia listened to music with her while she put on her make up and did her hair before every one of our dates. The first time I ever met Garcia, I picked her up flipped her over on her back and cradled her like a baby. She looked back up at me with those soulful green eyes so content, so trusting and my heart was full. As my love for Gracie grew so did my love for Garcia. I would tease her mother saying, “this is my baby, you can’t have her!”
The three of us bonded over our love of music. You might be quick to dismiss the notion that a cat can truly be a music lover, but Garcia was. I was studying Classical Guitar in College at that time, and almost every weekend without fail I would drive to Moultrie to play for Garcia and Gracie, my biggest fans. She would frolic around the room to the sound of music. Her favorite napping place were right in front of the speakers or at my feet while I played.
A few months later, when the pandemic came in full swing, we all moved in together and became a family. I was so proud to be her daddy. So full of her and Gracie’s love that I felt like an entirely new person. When I think back to those days, I can’t remember the fear or the anxiety that pervaded so much of our society. Instead I remember holding her in my arms singing, “Our house, is a very very very very fine house, with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, now everything is easy cause of you…” and I meant it.
In July of 2020 we added a new fur baby to the family. Mickey Hart was her name because she was the rhythm to Garcia’s melody. From the moment we brought her home the two were inseparable. Garcia’s maternal instincts kicked in and she began attempting to nurse the little potato shaped puppy. As Mickey grew into a Pug and not a cat Garcia never quite caught on that she wasn’t really Mickey’s mother. The frustration Garcia felt as Mickey failed time and time again to grasp the importance of using the litter box made us laugh until we cried. Garcia always characteristically human.
As the pandemic dragged on, and the normal stresses of regular life creeped there way into our little bubble via online classes and work-from-home jobs, Garcia was a steadfast companion always reminding us to slow down and appreciate the little things. When her mom was overburdened with schoolwork and absolutely ready to pull her hair out, Garcia would casually climb up on to the desk, plop down right in the middle of her keyboard, and look up with those big beautiful eyes as to say, “everything will be alright as long as you rub my belly.”
In 2021 we moved to Americus to be closer to my home, and Garcia quickly made so many new friends. Every new person who came to our home was greeted with a trilling meow, followed by prancing, and finally a barrage of cuddles. She was the life of our party, and the center of our social circle. Garcia never met a stranger. She was loved by many. She will be missed but never forgotten. May the longing in our hearts for the warmth and beauty she reflected towards us draw us ever toward the divine. We love you “Goo-Goo, Gee-Gee, Gar-Gar” always and forever.
Love, Daddy and mama… 🐈🐾
💕Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers 💕