Snuggles

Well, it's time to introduce The Ones Who Came Before.  I hated them both, and Zoe never knew them, so we'll turn the blog over to our mom.

Thank you, Miss Fuzz.  I grew up with cats.  I can't remember a time where we didn't have at least 1 cat at home.  So when I went off to college, I really missed them.  My junior year, I got my own apartment, and shortly after I decided I just had to have a cat.  And it had to be a black one.  Now, I was poor, so I was hoping to find someone giving away free cats.  I found someone in the local newspaper giving away free kittens - and they were black!!  I called the number listed and made arrangements to go see them.  It turns out that I kind of knew the guy who was giving them away - he was a minister, and he frequented the gas station where I was working part time.  I took some time and played with all of the kittens and the mama cat, and I picked one out and took him home.  What on earth possessed me to name him Snuggles?  I can't remember. 

He was a great cat in a lot of ways.  He loved people - especially people who didn't like cats.  He greeted everyone, and he wanted to sit in anyone's lap - he wasn't very picky.  He loved to be picked up and carried around.  He loved to give kisses.  And he could be so easy going.  I woke up more than once to find I was using him as a pillow. But he was very high maintenance.  He had to have you in his sight at all times - and you had to be able to see him also.  Every so often he would let out a 'mew' so you would look at him.  If you didn't, he would keep doing it until you finally gave in.  

I was so attached to him.  As you can imagine, my life went through a lot of changes while I had him, since I got him when I was 20.  We moved from his home in San Angelo, Texas to Bryan, Texas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and finally Bartlesville (with a few moves in between).  He was the one constant in my life (along with Zachary, who I'll save for another post) through the moves, the jobs, the boyfriends, and every drama that a 20-39 year old goes through.  So there were many times that I was very appreciative of his snuggly nature.

His nickname was Butch... because he wasn't always snuggly.  He was a biter, and he played very rough.  During his younger years I used to let him outside.  He was very aggressive towards other animals, and I had to haul him to the vet a couple of times to clean up wounds.  Which brings up another point - the vet.  He hated them.  They brought out the thick leather gloves when he made a visit.  He was also a very bad cat.  He had a habit of finding very inappropriate places to relieve his bowels and empty his bladder.  He shredded every piece of furniture I've ever owned.  He meowed in the middle of the night, almost every night, very loudly.  But I sure loved that cat. 

He developed kidney problems when he was 13 or so as well as arthritis.  Over the next few years, he would have periods of time where he was very sick, and he lost some weight, but meds and IV fluids would bring him around.  About this time last year, he got very sick - the worst I had seen him.  And his breath was horrible - I thought he had more bad teeth that needed to be taken out.  But the vet said that his kidneys were almost shot, and he could also feel a mass in his abdomen that he thought was probably cancer in his pancreas.  Because of his age (he was 18 1/2) and his advanced kidney problems, we decided not to do anything about the mass.  The vet assured me he wasn't in any pain, and we decided to try some IV fluids for a few days to see if we could get his kidneys working better.  This didn't do much good, and 2 weeks after his bad troubles began, I made the decision to have him put to sleep.  As I write this, I can hardly believe it's almost been a year since he's been gone.

I'm pretty sure he's still here with me, as I see Zoe taking on more and more of his characteristics.  When she's chattering to herself at 1 a.m., it looks like she's talking to her mice, but now I'm convinced she's talking to Snuggles.