Approaching a difficult Subgect.

With my eyes still an issue and having very little energy ...yes, I have been busy around the house, and for some reason less time. But there are good points to all that, I had one of the therapist come by the day before, who had seen me two weeks ago in the hospital and she was amazed at how weel I was doing, so all is not lost, there is hope yet. but I might be pushing my self a bit.
This is an ode for a dear friend, who past the second week I was in the hospital....
I remember him best because he became very closely attached to me and would really follow me every where I was, greeting when I came home late at all times, and never upset except when I left town for some days. He would greet me and then go and show me how much I wasn't missed. but I was. When he was young, he would bring me presents that I was not completely happy with, but that was beside the point, he was my companion and he died at the ripe old age of 18 1/4 or translated into cat years 95. Yes this cat came to me by a coworker who found out that I had lost a white cat some 6 months before. He was a child of a stray with one other sister and no other siblings. He came to the house, terrified and ran down to the basement and it took me some time to coax him out, but after I did he became my friend for life. He also immediately adopted out old cocker spaniel and would litteraly go with the dog when we walked him. When he became sick, the cat would catch a squirrel and give it to the dog. The cat live through 3 other dogs and always liked them.
He was given to me with the undignified name of with boy, I detested it. After observing him in action, he had something regal about him and I named him Senoir, not as a senor, but as the spanish SENIOR! The man and he was. his first "job" was to learn what his territory was and what it was he had to protect and what was fair game. The squirrels that ate my home grown tomatoes were the first thing he learn about and began taking them out and having them for dinner and I got tomatoes. The next was that Davis raised birds, chichen, pigeons and others, they were his, but not for eating, but to protect. When david would let his pigeons out for a short fly, Senoir would go inti the coop and play CLOSED CLAWS WITH THE PIGEONS. tHE PIGEONS NOT ONLY ALLOWED THIS, BUT ENCOUAGED IT. We woud see other neighborhood cats try to get in and get ham strung by senior, but he would allow the other cats to eat from his bowl without a quetion. We got another cat, who was beaeutiful, but lazy, we called hinm oscar and the two would play6 like brothers, show I would take to saying "Chilren, Stop that!"Yes, Senoir might have been my chlid, but I really felt him more as a companoin. He would kneed me when I felt bad, always closed clawed and always on a spot that would hurt or be ailing.
Yes, I have a lot of stories, because for cats,at least, there feels to be a long legacy from one to the next that I have had in my life and I do not understand the contection, but it feels very spiritual, like he was my gardian, and maybe it is the '9 lives' thing. I do not pretend to understand.
One of the things he would not do is allow himself to be taken care of medically by me. Now I could take him to the vet fine, but he would kick and scream when I would give him medicine.
I let him be as natural as I could, meaning he was an indoor outdoor cat, in durinng cold days, out at night. Everyone was worried about him being out, especially at night, but I knew he could take car of himself. Why? I will relate a few stories.
When my vet lamented that he was an outdoor cat, so he wouldn't life past 10, 12 at the most and he talked of cyoties, I had to tell the vet about his freind. As I have said my cat loved dogs and in or nieghborhood, one had a large seamingly visious Rotwielder. I say my cat jump out of the fence one day and figured the dog wasn't in an peaked in back only to be greeted with barking and snarling. I wondered about this. A few day later, I see my cat catch a squirrel and drag it over to that fence, jump the fence and toss the squirrel down. He was sharing his kill with the Rotwielder and the dog would always allow him access to the back yard. I thinkk the cyoties might have other things to worry about than my cat.
I spoke of how the pigeons where 'his to protect, he owned them. One night, I hear something at the coop and say an adolecent racoon. I go inside to get something to chase this thing, just as I get to the door, the darn cat jumped the coon and dropped him to the ground, the coons neck was broken. Of course, I was scared to death because in a fair fight, I am sure the coon would have ended Senoir, but the coon was trying to tear the screen off to get in and was off balance.
Senoirs great love was cleaning the neighborhood of vermin, he and the other one would go to homes where there was a rodent population and in the morning I would find all the rat bodies (not the mice), The largest gift was five bodies.
One neighbor refused to fix a broken window to his basement because in his words "I had a mouse problem before your cat would get in there.
When Senior was 16, our neighbor had a young pit bull (2 years), well the dog became enamoured with our dog and one day got out. Our front gate was open and the dog charged up to the front steps to see if Jake 'our dog' was in, except that there was Senior sunning him self in the way. The first time the dog was greeted with a spit. The dog backed down. The second time he seemed to gather his courage and rush the porch only to be greeted with a spitting and a raised back.
Now I am looking at thins in amazement because the dog was 4 times the size of the cat. The dog gathered him self up one more time and charged, the cat simply swated him on the nose and the dog ran home. Amazing to me.

The funniest thing was how he would catch and eat squirrel, the squirrel would come down the post the heckle the cat and the cat would jump over them and scare them to the ground and then they were dispatch quickly. (This I saw)
I had some clue of the number of squirrel because al that would be left was the tail, everything else was eated or given as a gift.
SO my long friend of 18 and 1/4 years left me while I was in the hospital, August 16th, 2008.
I was fully expecting it, because he was ailing and I was tod he went into the basement and I new he had returned to his birthplace. I still cried, but I only have fond memories. Here are some pictures.


















I had to add one more picture, even though it is not a good one, it shows his normal greeting of the dogs we owned, rubbing against them.