RIP Joey

My cat died this morning.

(This is going to be long. It is more for me to just sort through my thoughts at this time. Please excuse me for using this site as a way to vent, but I don't have anywhere else to go right now.)

This is a very new sensation to me. Throughout my 30+years on this planet, I have been very enthusiastic in my dislike for animals. My family never had pets when I was a child, and I thought animals were "dirty."

Then I met the love of my life about 3 years ago. She had a fat orange tabby named Joey. Joey was a stray cat who would come by her house back in 2000 when she was an undergrad in college. At that time, she had a fear/dislike of cats. She would lay out outside of her apartment to catch some rays and to study for school, and this cat would come up to her and jump on top of her stomach. It would then proceed to lay down and purr incessantly. After a few days of this, she took a liking to the cat and began feeding him.

Then it was on. The cat decided he liked his new home, she began to adore him, and officially took him in as her own, naming him Joey.

Fast forward 7 years and we meet and start dating. From the start I dislike her cat tremendously because, again, I think animals are dirty. We spend most of our time at my house because she lived with a roommate. The cat stayed at her house and her roommate tended to it. Joey was hardly in my life, and I liked it that way. She understood my dislike and never tried to force Joey on me.

Until the day in January when I told her I wanted us to move in together (with the notion that we'd be engaged some time this year). She then said she would go no where without Joey. I took a few days to think it over.

What I left out was that I have OCD (self-diagnosed) and am the biggest neat-freak in the world. My house is like a hospital, in that I am constantly cleaning and scrubbing every nook and cranny.

Nevertheless, I knew this was going to be my future wife, so I accepted Joey.

At first I was frightened of him. Then I would get annoyed of him because he left cat hair around the house, sometimes vomited undigested food on my immaculate carpets, and made the house smell like "cat."

I would share my stories of annoyance with my friends, and they said I should blog about them so that I wouldn't have to share the same stories with them separately. Instead, they could read about it whenever they wanted an update. Plus, they know I love writing (as a hobby) and that it would be fun for me.

I decided to indulge them and began writing.

The blog ended after several weeks because I realized that I was no longer annoyed with Joey, but actually grew to like him.

Strike that, I grew to love him.

Strike that. I loved him like I never knew I could love an animal.

Once I was laid off in March, I began tending to his every need. I cleaned his litter box, I kept his food bowl filled, I constantly dropped ice cubes in his water dish (because my girlfriend told me he liked cold water), I created several cat beds out of old pillows and sheets for him and placed them in his favorite lounging places in the house. He would sit in my lap every night as we watched Rockets game together. We also watched every playoff basketball game together with him sitting in my lap over the past few weeks. I often would be eating dinner during games and feed him pieces of meat from my plate. He got a huge kick out of that.

I couldn't get over how much I now loved Joey. In fact, in April I realized I loved cats so much that we went down to a pet adoption agency and adopted a 9 month old brown tabby. This little kitten was feisty and always messing with old Joey. We had to break up many a fight over the last few months. Sometimes I worried that Joey disliked this new cat, but then I would catch them licking each other's faces and tops of heads privately and my fears subsided.

Within days, I fell just as hard for the new cat as I did for Joey. I realized that I was now a "cat guy" after 30 years of pure animal dislike. Whenever my girlfriend and I would go out to play tennis (and walk to the neighborhood courts) I would stop and pet any random cat I found. She couldn't get over the transformation I'd made in just 6 short months.

Then this morning happened.

My girlfriend is out of town this week for business. She has been travelling a lot lately, so it has just been me and the two cats at home all day. I woke up this morning and found Joey laying on the carpet at the foot of the bed. He was laying on his side and had vomited a pool of blood.

I immediately yelped "Joey! Are you OK??? Are you sick buddy?!?!?" I went over to pet him and he felt very stiff. Not having been around animals much, I wasn't sure what had happened. I went to get some carpet cleaner to remove the stain. When I walked into the hallway of my house, I saw a trail of blood stains. Instantly, I ran back into my bedroom and yelled "JOEY, WAKE UP!!!"

Then it hit me. Joey had passed.

I began bawling immediately. I called my girlfriend and relayed the bad news. I then wrapped his body in his favorite towel and took him to a cat doctor, where he will be cremated and his ashes will be returned to us.

Now I sit here at my laptop, a despondent man reflecting on the last 6 months of my life.

I know my pain is nothing to that of my girlfriend's, who had the cat for 10 years. But Joey opened up a part of my heart that I never knew existed, and it pains me deeply that he is no longer here.

Joey... here's to you buddy. I don't drink very much, but I'll be raising a glass tonight in your honor. I'm sorely miss all the time we spent with you in my lap every night as we watched every Rockets game from January - playoffs, and then all of the playoff games over the last month.

RIP, bud. Thank you for showing me how to love animals. I will always remember you for that.