Red Door Animal Shelter sent out an email to its volunteers. There is a cat that was brought into the shelter, but he’s depressed and doesn’t want to be there. Can anyone foster him? We call him Strikes, because he seems to like bowling. 

I had lost my cat Kate (I’m really not good with naming) a few months before, so I thought, we could do that. We brought him home. We saw no evidence of him bowling (Kate was actually better at knocking things off of places), but he did enjoy sitting on my arm wherever I was laying down. He was fat, and liked to be petted on his own terms. He had teeth and claws and knew how to use them. He played rough. But when he was relaxed, his favorite thing was to be petted on his belly. His motor was purrfect.

Two years later, Mike from Red Door called me up and said (and I quote), “So…you want to adopt him, or what?” So we did. And we had him for about 8-9 years. He got old and skinny and a little frail. This weekend he went downhill fast, but waited for me to come home from Michigan before dying that night. It was a peaceful, private, and natural death.

We buried him in the front yard where we plan to plant prairie grass this fall. He was a good cat. He held his ground against all the dogs, and went outside from time to time. He was litter box trained until the end, and enjoyed both wet food and cheap ass dry food. He is survived by Adam, me, Miri, and Augie, the latter of whom always wanted to play with him.

My his name always be a blessing.