farewell, little man

So, I got a tearful message on my phone today from my mother letting me know that they had to put down the last of their cats.  It was a good thing - the right thing to do.  He was 15, had major painful digestive issues, was beginning to lose weight and it was just time.  He was also the cat that I was closest to.

I'm the one who found him as a kitten, got him used to people and was able to bring him in where he was safe.  There were always cats running around our neighborhood, but never a teeny kitten like this one.  This was a tiny little black kitten who was hunting grasshoppers for food.  Tiny, muscular, stealthy.  Somehow I got him close enough to me at one point where I saw he had green eyes.  For years I wanted a black cat with green eyes, and here he was!  Unfortunately, we had just adopted a cat a few months before and we weren't about to get another one.  One little catch though - it was mid-October and he was a black cat.  I was afraid he'd end up being the victim of some wanna-be-devil-worshipping-freakshow.  We decided we'd try to catch him and get him to the shelter where he'd be safer.

It took a little while for me to coax him over to me and get him to trust me, but boy did he love the attention once he did.  I was finally able to pick him up and we put him in a pet crate on our front porch.  We'd leave him there overnight and then take him to the shelter the next day (even though I secretly wanted to keep him).  Before my dad was ready to take him, he took him out of the crate and the little kitten climbed up onto his shoulder and started purring in his ear.  My dad's heart melted, he cried "He's not playing fair!" and the decision was made to keep him.  He was named Squeakers (Squeaks for short) because that was about the size of his meow.

The rest is history.  I got married and moved out a year later.  He gained plenty of weight, became a fierce protector and had many cute little routines that my parents will miss greatly.  Though he lived with them and he was their cat, part of me will always think of him as my little man.  I'm sure his next life will be a great one.