Goodbye Kitty

We first met Tabby at one of our rentals, and his owner was a tenant. One thing led to another, and we ended up taking on the tenant’s two cats, Abby and Tabby. That was about 15 years ago. Recently he lost a lot of weight, a cancerous growth had appeared on his right eye’s perimeter, and then his left jawline became swollen, indicating metastasis. Today, we took him to a veterinarian and had him euthanized.

Tabby was a good desert cat, smart enough to evade coyotes, owls and hawks. A friend remarked that about one in three cats can deal with the multiple predators around here, and Tabby was about one in ten.

He took no guff from our dogs, tearing into their snouts whenever they got too invasive. Damn sharp claws that drew blood from my hands quite often, too, but I always attributed that to his playfulness. If you didn’t pull away too quickly, they were just love bites.

He was the quintessential lap cat, depositing grey fur in surprising quantities, and he graced my bed with purring warmth.

I will miss him, as will the rest of the Ranch.