Cats really love their masters

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Bernard Marks of Hudson didn’t want his children to grieve for him when he died. To help ease their pain, Marks placed a comic in his wallet poking fun at the death process: An old man lying in his death bed, remarking to the gathering beside him that he had always wanted to be surrounded by his beautiful loving family. “So can some of you ugly ones move to the back,” the punch line read. But the cancer the 74-year-old Korean War veteran fought for the last five years was no joke, causing his wife, Irene, and six children much grief as they watched him endure the pain in his last days. Even his beloved 3-year-old cat, Penny, appeared to be distressed as Marks began to lose the battle earlier this week. The cat had stopped eating, then drinking almost on cue with its master. Bernard “Bernie” Marks died peacefully early Friday morning surrounded by his children and wife of 52 years. But he didn’t go alone. Penny died only inches away from him at the exact same time. “The reason we are so, OK, I guess, is the way this thing happened,” said Marks’s youngest daughter, Carol Ann Griffin, 41, of Milford. It’s an unbelievable story, the family knows, but it happened just like that and was witnessed by the eight people who were in the room at the time. Marks and Penny will be buried together at New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen on Tuesday, the family said. ‘She only liked Dad’ Penny had come into Marks life in the heat of his battle with death. Marks’ son James Marks, 42, of Amherst had brought the cat, a black and white tabby mix, into his parent’s home in 2002 after his cat gave birth to it and another kitten. Three months old at the time and not used to human interaction, Penny had immediately gone into hiding in her new home. The cat stayed in hiding for the most part, but after a few weeks began to warm up to Marks. Although he was three years into his disease, Marks was still very active, often running daily errands around town, and taking leisure trips to Foxwoods with Irene. The couple, childhood friends from Brooklyn, N.Y., had gotten married in 1951 when Marks joined the U.S. Marines. The pair had had a military wedding, then moved to Quantico, Va., where Marks worked as an aircraft log clerk during the Korean War. Three years later, he was honorably discharged with a National Defense Service Medal, and he and Irene returned to New York, where he took a job as a mechanic at the Continental Can Co. In 1972, Marks was transferred to the cannery’s Derry facility and the family moved to what he called “God’s country,” settling into the family’s Cottonwood Drive home in Hudson. At the age of 55, Marks retired as a plant manager at the company and began reaping the benefits of life as a retiree and grandfather to 13 children. That happy period was interrupted in June 2000 when Marks was diagnosed with rectal cancer. Over the next five years, Marks worked to fight the disease, enduring trials of chemotherapy, radiation and even a few surgeries, his family said. Throughout the entire process, Marks’ children said he never complained and remained social, often spending Tuesday nights at the Hudson American Legion Post 48, where he was a member and had numerous friends “He made friends very easily. He liked to talk to people, he liked to joke and give you a hard time, and he liked it better if you gave him a hard time back,” Griffin said. Penny had also discovered Marks’ charm and began living her life around her master’s schedule. Marks and the cat would often spend the early morning hours together when he would feed her, often petting her and praising her with words like “how’s my Penny baby.” Eventually, the two had a bedtime ritual as well, Irene Marks said. “He would go to bed at 8:30 and he would say ‘Come on Penny, lets go to bed,’ ” Irene Marks said, explaining how Penny would perk up and run into the room hopping on the bed to wait for Marks. Sometimes Marks would stay up until late however, and on those nights Irene Marks said Penny would still get up at 8:30 p.m. and wait for him on the bed. “And if he didn’t go in there, she would come down, go in the living room, sit in front of his chair and give him a look that said, ‘Well?’ ” Marks said. As the disease spread into his bones, Marks began to feel pain in his hip and at first assumed it was stiffness from Penny’s burrowing in close to his body at night. “He would say ‘Oh, it’s the cat,’ and I would say ‘Well, move the cat,’ and he would say, ‘Oh, no, no, no. I can’t do that,’ ” Irene said. Despite the Penny’s fondness for Marks, the cat remained distrustful of others. “Whenever anyone came to the house, she hid. She only liked dad,” said Griffin. Turn for the worst Eventually, Marks began to lose the battle. By the end of July, Irene Marks needed the help of Hospice nurses to help her manage caring for her dying husband and by Monday, the family had been informed that his time was near. At about that time, Griffin moved into her parents home to help care for her dad as well. By that time, Penny’s time with Marks, including their bedtime ritual, had been severely disrupted and the cat began to show signs of what the family assumed was depression. Strangers had overrun the family’s home and Penny, in response had resumed her hiding routine, hanging out in the basement. Irene Marks said she placed food in different places throughout the home but couldn’t tell if the cat was eating. “I thought she was getting sick and I said, ‘We are going to have to take her to the vet,’ ” Irene said. Griffin convinced her mom that the cat would be alright. “I said, ‘We have more important things to worry about. The cat’s fine,’ ” Griffin said. Meanwhile, Marks was deteriorating fast. He could no longer walk, and he required frequent doses of morphine to ease his suffering, his family said At the same time, Irene Marks said she noticed Penny had taken up residence in the bathroom, and appeared to be sluggish when she tried to run away when people came in. She eventually made her way to the basement, but Irene Marks said she appeared that, like her husband, she couldn’t walk either and was pulling herself along. By that time, all of Marks’ family had arrived to the home to be there when he died. Early Thursday night, along with her concerns for her husband, Irene Marks was also very worried about Penny and was relieved when a family friend dropped by and offered to help find the cat. The man returned from the basement with the lethargic cat in his arms. “There was definitely something wrong with the cat,” Griffin said. Griffin said the friend then took Penny into the living room, where Marks’ hospital bed was and sat next to Marks, who was, by then, fading in and out of consciousness. “He put my father’s hand on the cat so that she knew that my father was there,” Griffin said. The family later put Penny on the hospital bed and resumed caring for Marks. By 11:30 p.m., Griffin said the entire family was attempting to settle down for bed and while moving Marks hospital bed Penny fell off. “When she fell, I touched her and I said to Carol, ‘I think Penny’s dead,’ so they came over but she was still breathing,” Irene Marks said. The family then moved the Marks’ bed close to couch, where Irene Marks planned to sleep nearby. Shortly after that, Penny fell off the couch as well, and Griffin said she and her sister this time realized that the cat was dying. “And then we looked at my dad and we could see that his breathing had changed,” Griffin said. “We knew that this was it,” she said. The women rounded up the rest of the family who stood around Marks bed and began saying their final goodbyes. At the same time, Marks’ son-in-law, Joe Spinney, 45, of Lebanon, picked up Penny and sat her on Mark’s favorite recliner, which was at the edge of the bed. “So we are watching my father, and we are watching the cat,” Griffin said. Although Marks’ eyes had opened, the family said he appeared to be peaceful as he took his last breaths. Penny, however, meowed in pain and her body contorted before she finally collapsed on the chair. “My dad passed away and I looked over and the cat had died,” Griffin said. “We all looked at each other and went ‘Wow,’ ” Marks’ daughter Eva Spinney said. The women admitted that prior to their dad’s death they didn’t harbor any special feelings for Penny, partially because the cat was always in hiding whenever they came around. However, Irene Marks said she and her children are grateful for the happiness Penny gave Marks in his last years and maybe, the suffering she spared him. “We all assumed that Penny took his pain because he was so relaxed,” said Irene Marks.