~TARZAN, beloved pet of Judy & family

I have so many to tell you about but i will start with the most recently gone.. my beloved cat, TARZAN. He was appropriately named.. the king of our jungle! When we first got him he was just a small timid kitten but he was the only one i could catch at the time!! i hadn't wanted him...he wasn't the right colour he had long hair just not what i wanted but we took him anyway... in the car on the way home, he nearly got out of the window, climbed all over the car, in the windshield, and everywhere.... i was about ready to send him flying due to all the scratches on me. We got him home. he was filthy and smelly, so we gave him a bath... in the kitchen sink. Anticipating more scratches, i prepared with longs-leeves and big rubber gloves..boy was i wrong....the cat loved it.. he even stuck his head under water. He grew up to be a beautiful cat. but a huge one! about 30 pounds when we finally put him down. He would strut he knew he was handsome and he was funny. he had a personality all his own... and he ruled our house! if any other animal came to it he showed them who was boss.. even our old dog we had for years that only wanted to play at least in the beginning. Tarzan reminded me of the big grumpy dog on bugs bunny who always swatted the little one and he went flying.. that's how he was with the other pets.. Everyone that saw him fell in love with him and he knew it, even the people that hated cats, he warmed their hearts! He would follow us on our bikes and on our walks, i used to have to make him go home. he was sooo affectionate to. And he start to lick your hand from time to time and then he would bite you, give you a little look and then lick again like he was apologizing.. He loved to be vacuumed and it wouldn't matter where you were sweeping, he'd roll in your pile of dirt.! In August of 2009 we finally had to put him to sleep, and what a difficult ordeal that was. He had started having seizures but we don't know why. Even the vet didn't know why unless i did thousands of dollars in testing in Toronto on him which as good as it sounded, he was just a run of the mill cat, not a purebred not a show cat, and he was not a young cat. so we decided to leave him be and see if it got better. The medication seemed to help and then we ran out and it appeared worse. I think it even got to the point where he had a little stroke because he would be walking along and then all of a sudden fall down.. He'd lay there until it passed and away he'd go again.After i convinced the kids that it wasn't fair to let him live this way we made the appointment. we brushed him and fed him and gave him special treats and we put him in a box with his favourite pillow. Then we made the dreaded trip to the vets office. This was one of the saddest and most difficult days of my life. me my daughter and her boyfriend and her friend from school. My daughter started crying the minute we pulled up to the office. They put us in a little room, their palliative room so we could have a few minutes to say good bye to our beloved pet. All we had to do was open the door when we were ready and they would come and take him. At first my daughter wanted no part of that she was done with her goodbyes but just as i was getting ready to call the vet in to take him she came into the room crying hysterically. I had to try to be strong for her so i held back all my tears. She picked him up and cuddled him and cried and told him what a great cat and friend he had been to all of us not to mention the other cats that had come and gone. The vets assistant came to take him because i told her we were ready... however when she bent down to take the box, in my grief i yelled at her to leave him alone, She must have thought i had lost my mind...So she let us have a few more minutes. Finally the time came for them to take him so we said our final good byes to him.. I think he knew because it was like he was saying it to us too and thanking us for a good life. We left him there with them to do their job and came back when they told us it would be over. More tears ensued when we picked up the body to bring home and they handed the box to us with his collar on top of it. My daughter gripped that box like it was a prized possession. We buried him under a rose bush at her boyfriends parents house in the blazing sun. We gave him a little funeral and said more goodbyes to our beloved pet... One of the hardest things i have ever had to do. I know i will have to go through it again with me little dog but i hope i am over this one.. It has been a year and a half and i can hardly see to type this through my tears streaming down my face. A few weeks after my cats euthanasia i received what i anticipated to be a bill from the vet. To my surprise when i opened it there was a sympathy card with a poem and his paw-print on it from the vet... Again more tears but i have that card with his picture. Someday I will frame it for the kids to keep.