I have lost a Buddy

 

On Saturday Sept 8, 2012 I lost a friend and Buddy of thirteen years. He was a beautiful orange longhair cat. He was my friend, buddy and protector. The top photo he is waiting for the leaves to blow so he can kill them. In the bottom photo he is in his favorite place to take a nap, on top of the TV. May I present Dammit

When he was a kitten he would jump up in my lap and make biscuits on my shoulder, it hurt a lot but I loved the dazed look on his face while he was pumping away getting’ those biscuits just right.

Then something happened, I went into the hospital for six months for heart surgery and chemo, every day when my wife came from the hospital when she opened the door he was standing there looking around her to see if I was home too.

From that day on when I got home he was now my protector. He would ignore me for a couple of hours, punishing me for leaving him, and then he would come over and head-butt my leg and I knew I was home for sure.

He loved going out in the back yard with me and I loved going out with him. Our back yard belonged to him. He would not allow any cat to jump the fence when we were out.

Fall was his favorite time of year. When the leaves started to fall the war was on. If a leaf hit the ground he ignored it his job was to catch them in the air, that was a kill and meant that the leaf was dropped at my feet with a lot of “Good boy, great hunter” praise then he would go after another. The game would go on for hours, he never got tired or gave up.

He is the only cat I have ever known that would come when you whistled. He quickly learned the whistle for come and no matter where he was in the yard he would come flying across the yard when he heard it..

When I fell in the back yard and could not get up, I called my wife at work, he stood guard over me until she got home.

When our daughter moved back in with us she brought her two cats with her.. Slurpy and Dammit hit it off just great. They spent many hours playing. Herby (The Grump) was a different case, they did not get along at all. They were both alpha cats and the battle for top cat went on all the time. Herby was twice as big as my little Dammit, but Dammit was a warrior to the nines. Then it turned out that Slurpy was the real Alpha.

For my birthday my daughter had some of his photos framed, they hang in the living room so I can see them. His ashes rest in my room, the room we shared for all those years

I miss him very much,, he impacted my life more than any pet I have ever had. He was a warrior of the first order and sweet as a cat can be.

I could write about him for pages and pages. I may do that later but right now I can’t do that.

Rest in peace Dammit, I will join you soon.