O n
November 22, 1991, Rodger discovered a
stray mother cat with her
litter of three kittens in
the middle of his former
tree farm. Rodger took food to the mother cat for several days until he found
that she had hidden two of the kittens but for some reason left
behind this little black and beige ball of fur. Estimating
his age at 12 days old, we bottle-fed the baby and decided from the very beginning that he would be an
indoor kitty. Through the years, Pookie more or less
evolved into the King of the Household. His size was
massive and his fur was
thick, black and beige, and
he truly was a handsome guy.
From the time he was young,
we would take him outside on
a leash, something we
continued to do occasionally
for the rest of his life.
We could sense his
excitement in his calm,
reserved manner whenever he
would hear the jingling of
the collar's bell -
he knew at that point, he
would soon be exploring the
great outdoors. He
loved that - loved jumping
through the grass, eating
the grass, rolling in the
dirt, chasing
butterflies.....but after a
while, he was usually
ready to get back inside
into his air-conditioned
home.
His favorite place to lay
was on Rodger's chest.
From the time he was a baby
and nuzzling against
Rodger's beard, he would
wrap his big paws around
Rodger's neck, purring and drooling contentedly. He
truly loved his dad.
We often
wondered about the litter he came from - and theorize that Eddie
and
Black Cat
(also at the Bridge) may have been his littermates who were taken
away from the area by mama cat. The litter had
consisted of 2 black and gray tabbies and a black kitten. Eddie, a gray and black
tabby, was very similar to
Pookie in appearance and
temperament and, of course,
Black Cat was almost
completely black in color.
They both showed up in our
yard a few years after
Pookie became part of our
household - abandoned by the
owner who had also nicely left
behind
Lizzie, our dog (also at the Bridge). We will never know for sure,
of course.......
In the last few years of his life, his weight decreased almost
alarmingly and his beautiful
fur began thinning out on
his sides; and so we took
him for testing.
Testing negative for renal
problems, his thyroid levels were slightly
elevated and would need to be monitored in the future.
After a while, his weight stabilized at about 13 or 14 pounds
and his beautiful black and
beige fur grew back and life
went on.
In mid-2005, he became
bloated, grew listless and
wouldn't eat. At
the vet's we found that he
had hyperthyroidism and that
the bloating was probably
due to heart disease.
The medications began.
After a short period of
time, Pookie was going
downhill fast and when he
stopped eating again, we had
to face that ultimate and
final decision of helping
him to the Bridge. On
August 17th, 2005, Pookie
got his wings.
(thanks to
Pat
for these beautiful graphics)
We had Pookie through most
of our married life and our
home is just not the same
without him......we miss
"Daddy's Big Guy" ever so
much.
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