On Feb 9th, 2021, I had to put down his younger brother. I was broken. The two brothers were mutts, the older brother, a small, silky smooth black cat found in alley by abandoned house, legal name Enzo Furrari but affectionately called Chippy, along with 17 other names. Yes, truly 17 other names, I documented these names because I knew this day would come one day, and the younger brother that passed in 2021, a much larger, brood, aptly named Kittens (after all he was a kitten when I adopted him).
When I took these two musketeers into my life, I had just moved from Michigan to Texas for Graduate school. A broke college kid, I knew nobody in the entire state and all I had was the stuff in my car and a sublease to a house I found on Craigslist (back when that was safe) that had a rent of $350/mo with next door neighbors selling dope. I knew no-one in the city let alone the entire state of Texas when I moved, but then came the two boys into my life. First came Chippy, the older brother. They say you never love one kid more than the other, and I say phooey, I loved them both dearly, but Chippy was my boy. I had Chippy for about 6 months before Kittens. We had so much mischievous fun, tearing up carpets in the landlord's house and Chippy's owner being resourceful (BROKE) buying carpet swatches at a local carpet store and trying to jerry-rig the carpet back together that Chippy ripped. I still got my deposit back! Then there was the time that we drove back to Michigan during winter break from Grad school and of course I took Chippy with me. I was new cat owner, not knowing a thing other than throwing his litter box in the car and a couple blankets (it gets cold north of Missouri during the winter). Being the young broke college kid, I decided I would straight shoot this drive but it was around Springfield, IL that I had to pull over to nap. No, no, no hotel, could not afford that, so found a well lit Walmart parking lot and passed out. I vividly recall waking up to find my Chippy sitting in my lap purring away. That was the moment, I renamed him to Enzo Purrrari. I raised both these boys from little kittens to the age of 7-8 where my career would take me across the US to California. It was also a time in my life as a newly wed and we always knew we would come back to Texas. This was also a time where my mother moved to Texas and a period of time when she was alone similar to my situation several years ago. I agreed to give care of my boys to my mother's possession with some well-placed negotiation points including having to buy her a Litter Robot II which made sifting their litter much easier for my mother. I'll be a spokesperson for those things regardless if I ever decided to have cats after this. I dearly missed them when I was in California, but three years later I found myself back home in Texas.
I agreed to let my mother continue care for our cats while my wife and I lived in a one bedroom apartment skimping to save up money to buy a home. Then in 2021 we got our shot and bought a home. This was my chance to bring back my Chippy into my life. He has always been closer to me, whenever I visited my mother from California, I always recall leaving two or three shirts for Chippy so that he would not miss me. That boy always missed me. My mom would say he would whimper and sit alone for a few days after I left. So mom, can I take Chippy back? Oh take him back before he tears my carpets apart! Too late! Yes, we did have to replace the carpet with laminate! So mid 2021, Chippy and I are rekindling our friendship. Like best friends always do, we do not skip a beat. It was like when I first brought him on as a Kitten, we connected instantly. With Kittens passing, I always knew this day would come where his older brother, Chippy would go. Oftentimes, I neglected it, being unrealistic that he would live to be 25+, but I always knew that time would come.
Well that time came today...I was fortunate to have 3 years with Chippy in his advanced age. No ripped carpets this time! Perhaps its maturity, but he was such a well-behaved boy in my ownership (I'm just glad he got out all the mischief in the landlord and my mother's house!) He was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism three years previously and was always a skinny runt, but man could this guy eat. I'm talking three can foods a day. Sure, the hyperthyroidism did not help matters, but boy did my boy love him some Fancy Feast Chunky Chicken. Last week I got a 25% off his Chunky Chicken and bought him 3-24x packs (I literally told him Christmas came early, Chippy), you should have seen his eyes light up when I started opening the box and of course had to keep the box for safety inspection, yes must do that, Chippy. That and then two years ago, I discovered he LOVED sous vide chicken. Bless my wife, I would buy him chicken drumsticks weekly and sous vide every three days, that boy loved him some sous vide chicken, especially the fleshy part by the edge and don't even get me started on the skin, dude straight vacuumed clean the skin. No, no, no, this boy hit the lottery of cats, every morning, warm up the sous vide chicken, hand feed the pieces to him for 15 mins then clean-up Mr. Maharaja's room. Clean litter boxes (yes, litter boxes, he had two boxes and a litter robot) check, fill water glass, check, My old man left me a few Hersey kisses on the floor? check...ahh, finally done, CHIPPY, are you peeing in the litter box again????
I am blessed. I had 3 amazing years with my boy. COVID allowed me to work from home so I got to spend even more time with him. Much to my back's chagrin, I would sit perched working off my laptop with my boy sitting at my feet, sometimes sitting next to me in the couch, and then right as I get an important email, he puts his tiny face on my lap to make me realize screw it, what is truly important in life is in front of me and not on my screen. I knew I was living on borrowed time, but gosh did I enjoy my time with him.
Chippy had his own room. HIS OWN ROOM. Rent free. In the hot Texas summers I would keep his room nice and cool while my wife and I baked away to save money and in the Winter, we are freezing at 65 in our part of the house, but Chippy, only the best, 72. Little buddy straight up drained my money, but I would do it all over again. Gosh, I would do it in a heartbeat for Chippy. I'm a man of value so a year into Chippy's three year unpaid lease period, I decided to charge him. How do you charge a cat you may ask, ahh yes, he became something we call a Chippy Pillow. I would plop my head on his tummy use him as Pillow. He was a small thing weighing only 5 lbs, but though he was small, the pillow was most comfortable. Additionally, this guy could purrrr. Enzo Puurrrrari would get his engine going and they say you could hear him a block away. But I knew this day would come. I recorded multiple purr sessions so my purr machine will live on until I see him again.
He was my stress buster. I work a very stressful job combined with issues between my wife and I trying to conceive, the entire world's problems stopped when I entered into Chippy's room. It was just he and I and nothing else mattered. We played a game called smoochie. I got these Nike glasses two years ago and for whatever reason Chippy was enamored by them, he would come brush up his checks and mostly his incisor and try to knock my glasses over and then I would smooch him on the cheek. We would do this back and forth for upwards of 10 minutes some times! I would announce "my turn" and smooch his cheek, and then he would come back and brush his cheek on my glasses edge as I said "your turn." I recorded a video of this because I knew this day would come.
The last three days have been trialing as his body started to fail. I do not want to capture more details than this because I do not wish to remember him like this in my time capsule. I knew it was time today. I knew the look from his younger brother. Every cat owner knows it. It's a sobering look and nothing will ever even fail to encapsulate that feeling as this post by gareth: When the moment comes.... I read it when Kittens past away and saved the post because I knew this day would come. I read it with a very heavy heart and tears in my eyes.
I sit here conflicted. I lost my best friend, truly my best friend that helped me when I was alone, helped my mother when she was alone, helped me when my marriage was faltering, managed my stress of life, he was always there for me. I have solace that in his best years, I was there for him. What better representative of our smoochies game, now it is "My turn." I'm conflicted because I thought I would be broken when that day came. That day came today, and I am happy. Happy that he had an amazing life; a rent free, hand-fed sous vide, lavish lifestyle for a king-size life. I type this with tears in my eyes as I will miss my boy, my Chippy, my best friend. I vow to come back to this post every year in remembrance of you Chippy. I love you and we will meet again one day.
When I took these two musketeers into my life, I had just moved from Michigan to Texas for Graduate school. A broke college kid, I knew nobody in the entire state and all I had was the stuff in my car and a sublease to a house I found on Craigslist (back when that was safe) that had a rent of $350/mo with next door neighbors selling dope. I knew no-one in the city let alone the entire state of Texas when I moved, but then came the two boys into my life. First came Chippy, the older brother. They say you never love one kid more than the other, and I say phooey, I loved them both dearly, but Chippy was my boy. I had Chippy for about 6 months before Kittens. We had so much mischievous fun, tearing up carpets in the landlord's house and Chippy's owner being resourceful (BROKE) buying carpet swatches at a local carpet store and trying to jerry-rig the carpet back together that Chippy ripped. I still got my deposit back! Then there was the time that we drove back to Michigan during winter break from Grad school and of course I took Chippy with me. I was new cat owner, not knowing a thing other than throwing his litter box in the car and a couple blankets (it gets cold north of Missouri during the winter). Being the young broke college kid, I decided I would straight shoot this drive but it was around Springfield, IL that I had to pull over to nap. No, no, no hotel, could not afford that, so found a well lit Walmart parking lot and passed out. I vividly recall waking up to find my Chippy sitting in my lap purring away. That was the moment, I renamed him to Enzo Purrrari. I raised both these boys from little kittens to the age of 7-8 where my career would take me across the US to California. It was also a time in my life as a newly wed and we always knew we would come back to Texas. This was also a time where my mother moved to Texas and a period of time when she was alone similar to my situation several years ago. I agreed to give care of my boys to my mother's possession with some well-placed negotiation points including having to buy her a Litter Robot II which made sifting their litter much easier for my mother. I'll be a spokesperson for those things regardless if I ever decided to have cats after this. I dearly missed them when I was in California, but three years later I found myself back home in Texas.
I agreed to let my mother continue care for our cats while my wife and I lived in a one bedroom apartment skimping to save up money to buy a home. Then in 2021 we got our shot and bought a home. This was my chance to bring back my Chippy into my life. He has always been closer to me, whenever I visited my mother from California, I always recall leaving two or three shirts for Chippy so that he would not miss me. That boy always missed me. My mom would say he would whimper and sit alone for a few days after I left. So mom, can I take Chippy back? Oh take him back before he tears my carpets apart! Too late! Yes, we did have to replace the carpet with laminate! So mid 2021, Chippy and I are rekindling our friendship. Like best friends always do, we do not skip a beat. It was like when I first brought him on as a Kitten, we connected instantly. With Kittens passing, I always knew this day would come where his older brother, Chippy would go. Oftentimes, I neglected it, being unrealistic that he would live to be 25+, but I always knew that time would come.
Well that time came today...I was fortunate to have 3 years with Chippy in his advanced age. No ripped carpets this time! Perhaps its maturity, but he was such a well-behaved boy in my ownership (I'm just glad he got out all the mischief in the landlord and my mother's house!) He was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism three years previously and was always a skinny runt, but man could this guy eat. I'm talking three can foods a day. Sure, the hyperthyroidism did not help matters, but boy did my boy love him some Fancy Feast Chunky Chicken. Last week I got a 25% off his Chunky Chicken and bought him 3-24x packs (I literally told him Christmas came early, Chippy), you should have seen his eyes light up when I started opening the box and of course had to keep the box for safety inspection, yes must do that, Chippy. That and then two years ago, I discovered he LOVED sous vide chicken. Bless my wife, I would buy him chicken drumsticks weekly and sous vide every three days, that boy loved him some sous vide chicken, especially the fleshy part by the edge and don't even get me started on the skin, dude straight vacuumed clean the skin. No, no, no, this boy hit the lottery of cats, every morning, warm up the sous vide chicken, hand feed the pieces to him for 15 mins then clean-up Mr. Maharaja's room. Clean litter boxes (yes, litter boxes, he had two boxes and a litter robot) check, fill water glass, check, My old man left me a few Hersey kisses on the floor? check...ahh, finally done, CHIPPY, are you peeing in the litter box again????
I am blessed. I had 3 amazing years with my boy. COVID allowed me to work from home so I got to spend even more time with him. Much to my back's chagrin, I would sit perched working off my laptop with my boy sitting at my feet, sometimes sitting next to me in the couch, and then right as I get an important email, he puts his tiny face on my lap to make me realize screw it, what is truly important in life is in front of me and not on my screen. I knew I was living on borrowed time, but gosh did I enjoy my time with him.
Chippy had his own room. HIS OWN ROOM. Rent free. In the hot Texas summers I would keep his room nice and cool while my wife and I baked away to save money and in the Winter, we are freezing at 65 in our part of the house, but Chippy, only the best, 72. Little buddy straight up drained my money, but I would do it all over again. Gosh, I would do it in a heartbeat for Chippy. I'm a man of value so a year into Chippy's three year unpaid lease period, I decided to charge him. How do you charge a cat you may ask, ahh yes, he became something we call a Chippy Pillow. I would plop my head on his tummy use him as Pillow. He was a small thing weighing only 5 lbs, but though he was small, the pillow was most comfortable. Additionally, this guy could purrrr. Enzo Puurrrrari would get his engine going and they say you could hear him a block away. But I knew this day would come. I recorded multiple purr sessions so my purr machine will live on until I see him again.
He was my stress buster. I work a very stressful job combined with issues between my wife and I trying to conceive, the entire world's problems stopped when I entered into Chippy's room. It was just he and I and nothing else mattered. We played a game called smoochie. I got these Nike glasses two years ago and for whatever reason Chippy was enamored by them, he would come brush up his checks and mostly his incisor and try to knock my glasses over and then I would smooch him on the cheek. We would do this back and forth for upwards of 10 minutes some times! I would announce "my turn" and smooch his cheek, and then he would come back and brush his cheek on my glasses edge as I said "your turn." I recorded a video of this because I knew this day would come.
The last three days have been trialing as his body started to fail. I do not want to capture more details than this because I do not wish to remember him like this in my time capsule. I knew it was time today. I knew the look from his younger brother. Every cat owner knows it. It's a sobering look and nothing will ever even fail to encapsulate that feeling as this post by gareth: When the moment comes.... I read it when Kittens past away and saved the post because I knew this day would come. I read it with a very heavy heart and tears in my eyes.
I sit here conflicted. I lost my best friend, truly my best friend that helped me when I was alone, helped my mother when she was alone, helped me when my marriage was faltering, managed my stress of life, he was always there for me. I have solace that in his best years, I was there for him. What better representative of our smoochies game, now it is "My turn." I'm conflicted because I thought I would be broken when that day came. That day came today, and I am happy. Happy that he had an amazing life; a rent free, hand-fed sous vide, lavish lifestyle for a king-size life. I type this with tears in my eyes as I will miss my boy, my Chippy, my best friend. I vow to come back to this post every year in remembrance of you Chippy. I love you and we will meet again one day.
