Toby

This has been a very sad week. We had to put our sweet Toby down last week. He was 17 1/2 years old and has been dwindling due to old age. Who would have thought that this huge cat that weighed 19 pounds would become a frail old man with stiff hips. His last couple days we spent almost every minute with him. We thought he would just give up over the weekend but he didn't. He just kept hanging in there. He continued to sleep with us with my hand on his side so he knew we were still there for him. If he thought he was alone he would meow out until I touched him. So sad. And with every little touch I made, he purred a faint purr.

He has been such a huge part of our lives. I went to Target one night in Phoenix(1996) and came home with a kitten. I did double check with Kirk. and called from a pay phone....Actually, it was more like a warning. We had recently put down a cat due to old age (she was 16) and our 18 yo Siamese was extremely depressed. She perked up as soon as she saw Toby. Someone for her to take care of. And she did exactly that and lived another two years until she was 20 years old!  He was the sweetest cat but extremely possessive of me. That was kind of wierd. As he aged he improved his behavior. I was always worried that he would smother the kids when they were babies. He was so big. He equaled their size and outweighed them at times. But he was always gentle and well loved.

We miss Toby.

We miss him laying all over the kids school books so they can't write on their papers.

We miss him lying across our laps while sewing.

I miss him pulling out all the straight pins from my pin cushion only to return to it and what appears to have been a pin explosion.

I miss him removing the pins in a pattern as fast as I am putting them in.

I miss him sitting on my lap while I am cross stitching and grabbing the embroidery floss as it is being pulled through the cloth.

I miss him playing with the yarn, the curly ribbon, the elastic, the string.....

We miss the time he took an entire skein of yarn and twined it under the kitchen table between all the legs during an afternoon of partying while we were away.

We don't miss the time he found Jared's rubber snake that he had just gotton from the zoo and chewed it up into pieces, leaving it on the floor. It looked disturbing because it looked real.

We don't miss the numerous barbie feet that he chewed off leaving the bendable filament sticking out from the ankles.....that looked gross too. We finally learned to not leave rubbery things out.

We miss him sitting in the high chair,

licking baby food off the tray, the baby's face, bib, hands.....he loved baby food. Loved, loved it.

He loved chewing on the girls little christmas tree that they had in their room for their dolls. They don't miss that. It was annoying.

We don't miss him finding ways to be close to the streamers. He had a thing for crepe paper too.

He had spent years drinking out of the goldfish bowl and even recently. Victoria was so afraid that he was going to eat her goldfish, Silly. He never did. I think the fish misses him too.

One time Jared saw me kiss Toby on the head when he was a baby. So he walked right over to him and licked his side. He came to me with his wet slobbery mouth, wide open with tons of fur stuck inside and outside his mouth. He never did that again.

Another time, Jared only knew how to crawl and was heckling Toby. He chased Toby out of the room as fast as his little hands and legs would go. All of a sudden he came crawling back into the room at the same speed with Toby attached to his back, nails included. I will never forget that. Jared didn't even cry. To him, Toby was a playmate.

We will all miss Toby.

And I know he loved us to the very last second.

I feel relieved that he is comfortable and at peace.