A Life Well Lived

Almost 14 years ago, I had just started my junior year of high school. My dad and his second wife had recently divorced and for whatever reasons, she got to keep the family pets - a dog and two cats. One night after a volleyball game, my dad's ex wife asked if I would follow her out to her truck because she had something to give me. It turned out to be this little orange kitten that I immediately named Christopher. I don't know why but I loved the name Christopher when I was growing up and many stuffed animals, pet frogs, and other objects bore the name. :-)

I was so excited to have a kitten that was mine and immediately took Christopher home where he settled into life with my dad, younger brother Mark, and I. Christopher lived at my dad's house until I moved into my own apartment after my third year of college. Since then, he was with me through two moves, the addition of another cat and later, a dog, and watched as various other pets came and went - turtles, guinea pigs, and now Happy the parakeet. Through it all, Christopher was the most laid back cat I have ever met. Nothing seemed to phase him - other cats, dogs, kids, nothing. He was just a 'go with the flow' kind of guy. I have many, many memories of Christopher but here are a few of my favorites:

~ Waking up one morning after carving pumpkins for Halloween to find Christopher had added to the carving by leaving bite marks and eating huge chunks of the pumpkins during the night.

~ Living in our first apartment, none of my neighbor's knew my name but they could all tell you which house belonged to Garfield. (Christopher had always been cheerfully chubby and the kids in the neighborhood just started calling him Garfield.)
                                          

~ Speaking of his metabolically challenged state, I tried putting him on diet food once. He wouldn't eat it by itself so I mixed it with some regular food.. One afternoon, I had to run up to Dubois for a few hours and after feeding him, I left. He ate every single piece of the regular food out of his dish and left every piece of the diet food. Then, he proceeded to chew a hole in a bag of regular cat food I had in the house and when I came home, he was laying in a huge pile of food with the most content look on his face

~ That first apartment was right behind the post office and when I would walk over there to get my mail, Christopher would follow me, sit outside the post office door while I went in to get my mail, and then follow me home.

~ There were many instances of my getting in the car and backing out of my driveway only to see Christopher in the rear view mirror sleeping on the back seat or back window. If my window was ever rolled down, he would hop right in there and make himself comfortable.  He loved cars!

                                    


~ Christopher slowly lost his sight until, for the past several months, was completely blind. He could be sleeping anywhere in the house and the instant I opened a bag of potato chips, he would come trotting into the kitchen, looking for a chip. That boy loved potato and corn chips, graham crackers, and black olives!

Today I got to hold Christopher and love on him during his last minutes of life. The people at the vet's office were amazing and helped to make the process easier. I got to hold him during his last conscious moments and after he was gone, I kissed his face and told him what I often did while I was cuddling with him, "You'll always be my boy."