Farewell Gary

Our cat Gary was hit and killed by a car on Friday night.  We had him for nine years, so our kids don’t even remember life before Gary.  Needless to say, it was a very sad weekend at our house.  As a tribute to Gary, the following are highlights from his life.

• Nine years ago the wife nearly hit him with her car near a farm when he was just a kitten.  She pulled over and the farmer told her she could take him home.  We named him Gary after SpongeBob’s pet snail.
• Gary wasn’t feeling well so we took him to the vet and had a pellet removed from his stomach.
• He loved pooping in my neighbor nemesis’ flowers.  They tried everything from sprinkling pepper in the flower garden to hauling him to the pound.  Nevertheless, Gary loved sunning himself on their grass and always came back for more.  He loved showing everyone exactly who ran things.
• The only placed he loved sunning himself more than the neighbor’s lawn was the middle of the road.  He casually strolled out in into the road with all of the attitude in the world and made all of the cars go around him.  He always owned the place, no matter where he was.
• Sometimes Gary thought he was a dog.  When Wally and I walked through the fields by our house looking for pheasants he walked with us the entire trip.  Any other time we went on a walk through the neighborhood Gary would walk with us.
• The wife liked to stand near him and tap her legs with her hands.  Every time she did this Gary would immediately jump up into her arms.
• We moved to our new house a couple of miles away from our old house and, from time to time, we wouldn’t see him for a few days.  All we had to do was drive over to the old neighborhood, roll down the window and call his name.  It wouldn’t be long before Gary came trotting out of the fields.
• A few days after coming back from an out of town baseball tournament Gary was missing.  After a few weeks we decided that something had happened and we’d never see him again.  Eight months later the pound called saying they picked him up in a town 10 miles away.  It honestly felt like he had come back from the dead.  Once again, our neighbor’s plan to get rid of him was foiled.
• Once, as he regularly did, Gary brought a mouse in from the fields.  As he was toying with the mouse, my old friend and I were out talking, watching Gary at work.  For some reason, Gary let the mouse go and it ran straight into my friend’s garage.  I looked at my friend and his glazed-over eyes told me that he was envisioning the nightmare infestation of mice that his house had just had thrust upon it.  We spent the next 20 minutes tearing his garage apart until we were able to eliminate the intruder.

I realize that some people probably considered him a nuisance and are happy he is gone, but I suppose that makes us even since those peoples’ children are always a nuisance (I’m not sure if I’m kidding or being completely sincere).  Pets are definitely inconvenient, messy and a pain in the backside.  They cause stress and tension among neighbors and most of the time we wonder why we even put up with them (the pets, not the neighbors).  At the same time, they are loyal, sincere and want nothing more than the love and attention of their owner.  Gary was definitely all of the above.  We’ll miss him, but realize that we were lucky to have him in our lives for nine of the most impressionable and memorable years of our family.  When our children grow up and think back to their childhood, they will definitely remember Gary as a significant part of it.  Isn’t that, after all, why we have pets in the first place?