Our big male cat, announced in this space in 2005, died suddenly. Bloggers’ cats get obituaries.
Looking irritated, probably being tickled.
Marlowe always had a great coat and there was a lot of cat under it; in mid-life he became obese, but when we put him on a diet and his waist re-appeared he was one damn fine-looking cat.
He wasn’t terribly smart or terribly affectionate. He liked the outdoors and was a pretty good rat-catcher. Hey, we live near the middle of a port city and that’s a big plus.
His greatest joy in life was a warm stationary lap, so he approved of long TV shows. He had one remarkable skill; on those occasions when I didn’t want a lap-cat, I’d reject his advances. He’d go into stealth mode and ooze in so smoothly that I wouldn’t even notice he was on my lap till I couldn’t get my hand on the mouse-pad.
If I were irritated about the oozing-in, I’d tickle him, and if I tickled him too much, he’d stab me. I guess you call this a relationship.
A couple months ago he was OK at his regular vet checkup. A week ago he was fine. Then he was poorly, and suddenly his abdomen was grossly swollen; after a night in hospital, the ultrasound revealed the cancer all over the place, everything all blocked up.
We racked up a couple thousand in vet bills in his last 48 hours; I give thanks for living in a civilized country with socialized medicine for humans.
He only had a very few really bad days. He had a lot of really good ones, lots of laps and not that many tickles.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: EricH (Feb 02 2016, at 21:56)
Sorry to hear it. He looked beautiful.
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From: Takashi (Feb 02 2016, at 22:29)
Sorry to hear that he has gone to rainbow bridge. RIP.
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From: Greg (Feb 03 2016, at 04:03)
RIP Marlowe. We have a big Maine Coon called Trevor and it seems his behaviour is much the same and I'll be very sad when he's gone. Hope you're coping ok.
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From: Josh Lubell (Feb 03 2016, at 06:01)
My condolences, as a fellow human owned by cats. Looks like Marlowe gave you lots of fond memories.
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From: stephen o'grady (Feb 04 2016, at 01:05)
So sorry to hear it. I know how important pets can be, and what it means when they're gone.
He looked like a good one.
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From: Ryan Barrett (Feb 04 2016, at 22:45)
So sorry for your loss, Tim. Sounds like he had a great life, and loved you a ton.
I can commiserate, and also confirm the blogger cat owner thing. :P https://snarfed.org/2012-12-29_charlie
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