Retired gravedigger inspired to live joyfully after connecting with cats

If you ask Bruce what he did before he spent his retirement walking his cats on a leash around his home, he’ll likely answer with a pun.

“It’s kinda like a dead-end job,” he smiles. You see, Bruce spent 33 years as a gravedigger.

“You can trust our staff,” he starts saying, before laughing. “We’ll always be the last ones to let you down.”

Although joking about letting people down "six feet under" can be a coping mechanism when you’re surrounded by so much sadness, Bruce says he took the responsibility of preserving family’s memories very seriously.

“The type of work that I did was difficult to leave at the job,” Bruce admits.

It was hard to not bring those big feelings back to his house, until Bruce started coming home to cats.

“We have a sign inside that says, ‘It’s the cats' house, we just pay the mortgage,’” Bruce laughs.

Bruce grew up with dogs, but after his wife adopted a couple cats, he started appreciating the felines' independence.

“They don’t necessarily need you, except for, ‘Open the can will ya?!’” Bruce laughs, imitating the cats. “‘I need the food!’”

So when a cat does choose you, Bruce learned, it’s the real deal. Like it was with Kali.

“She wanted to do everything together,” Bruce says, before showing me a picture of the cat cuddling up to his beard. “She’d be globbed on to me all the time.”

Kali even inspired Bruce creatively. He started painting colourful canvases. Now his man cave is filled — including the ceiling — with countless pieces of his original cat art.

“She’s probably the best friend I ever had in my life,” Bruce says, before pulling down the collar of his shirt to reveal a lifelike tattoo of Kali covering the left side of his chest.

It’s a permanent tribute to his feline friend, placed over the heart she purred her way into.

“I can think of all the fun stuff we did,” Bruce says, rolling up his sleeve to show the names of his other cats inked on his arm. “Their memory never dies.”

Like the graves he once cared for, Bruce’s cat tattoos and cat art are proving to be touchstones to celebrate lives once lived, and reminders to appreciate the life he’s now living.

“They put life in perspective,” Bruce says, watching one of his cats explore the yard during their morning walk, the sun shining on his smiling face. “Every day – joy.”