For Duke

I wouldn't normally do this.  Maybe 'cause I'm bored or because I just need to get it off my chest, I'm writing it anyway.  This is really just for my own benefit.  I needed to get it down in "print" while memories were still fresh.  One day I'll forget some of it and I just wanted to be able to look back and read and remember.  Some of you have been to my house and have met our cat Duke.  You might find this interesting.  Most of you haven't and I don't blame you if you just move on now.  Like I said, this is really more for me than for you...

Sixteen years ago I married what would turn out to be the most important and wonderful woman God could have ever put before me.  Shortly afterward we decided that maybe what we needed around our tiny apartment was a pet.  A friend of Lisa's mom had a cat who had just had kittens and on a whim we decided to drive out to see them.  We had already made the decision to take one home before we ever got there.  There were 3-4 kittens still there and we played with all of them for a bit before settling on Duke.  He was the most feisty, wasn't afraid of the dogs in the house and wouldn't run or cower when we played with him.

The first thing we learned about Duke was that he was a jumper.  I swear he could jump 6 feet straight up from a sitting position.  We even trained him to jump back and forth from us from shoulder to shoulder.  That was training we'd have to quash later when my Dad stopped by to our place for the first time and was promptly "attacked" as he walked in the door.  His first year was a bit rough.  One day I walked out to the living room to find him missing.  After a bit of a search I heard a faint meow.  As I walked out to our 3rd floor balcony I looked down to find him on the ground sniffing around.  I guess he used up one of his lives jumping from the 3rd floor of our apartment.  A few weeks later, Lisa was watching TV and noticed her lap partner was no longer invading her personal space.  Again a thorough search ensued and we finally found him....in the refrigerator.  He had been in there for at least an hour.  Life number 2 used. Towards the end of that first year we had the bright idea to get a dog.  Shelby was a Rottweiler and was about as sweet a dog as I've ever seen.  Even though she was sweet, she was still big.  I'm sure Duke used up at least 4-5 lives over the next few years dealing with that beast. 

Duke was a long haired mix.  We think part Maine Coon and part Siamese.  At his biggest he topped the scales ~ 17 pounds. With all the fur though he looked easily 50% larger than he actually was.  He had a personality that was about as close to canine like as I've seen in a cat.  Most cats tend to want to be left alone until they don't.  Duke was always right by your side, sometimes much to my frustration.  He also liked being the only pet.  We once got another cat thinking he'd like the company.  He didn't.  Lisa once witnessed Duke push the other cat into the toilet as he was drinking.  I still laugh out loud over that.

We've moved probably 10 times in the 16 years we've been married and Duke has been there and had to adjust to each new place.  He always did so rather easily too.  He was never a sick cat.  He was always indoors and up until about a year ago the only issues we had were the occasional hairball.  Around a year ago or so we also noticed that he was deaf.  I'm not entirely sure if it was gradual or if there was a sudden issue that caused it but suddenly he wouldn't turn when you called and would walk into a room and meow as if he was lost.

About 4 months ago we noticed he was starting to lose weight and didn't seem as interested in his food as he usually was.  After a few trips to the vet we discovered that he had some sort of a mass in his stomach area. (It turns out that it was Pancreatic Cancer)  We knew that this day would come at some point but never knew when or how.  We had determined though that while we loved our cat, he was just a cat.  Some treatment would be done but we just couldn't justify going broke to operate on a 16 year old cat who even if surgery was successful would probably only have 2-3 not so good years left.  We decided to give him some medicine for comfort and take him home. As long as he would eat something and didn't appear to be in pain we'd keep him with us as long as we could.

Last Monday 10/26/09 he could no longer move himself around anymore.  Lisa found him unable to get himself out of his litter box.  We knew then that it was time.  Lisa took him in that morning and was with him as he peacefully passed.  I found a nice spot in our landscape area to bury him and next spring we'll find a nice plant or flower to put there.  I could never have imagined how difficult this would be.  I know that some people think of their pets as people.  I don't.  I know that he was a cat and that it's not the same as losing a child or other member of the family.  There is still an emptiness in the house though that I can't shake yet.