CATS ON TUESDAY is a group of cat lovers 
26 Feb. 1987 - 21 Sep. 2003
Today I want to tell you something about Garfield. When Ron and I started to live together in 1988 we went to the pet shelter to get 2 cats. One of them was Garfield. He caught our attention by playing with a ping-pong ball. He had been there with his brother, but stayed behind when he was taken. He was 1 year old. He had a ridiculous name, so we re-named him : Garfield!
Garfield adapted easily to living indoors. He liked to play and loved to sleep on my lap. He stood very high on his legs and was a real gentleman. After him came a lot of other cats: kittens and older cats. He made it clear that he was the boss, but once that was settled he was very friendly. For the kittens he was like a mother; he helped, protected, raised them. This is one of my favourite cat pictures ever:
Garfield is sleeping with Mickey in his paws after he washed him. Mickey was the first kitten Garfield took care of. They were bosom friends and truly loved each other...Garfield experienced 4 moves with us, but everytime he adapted to the new home without any problem. If we were there and he knew the place of his food & water and the litterbox, it was okay with him. A few months after the last move (to our current home) he got skinny and his always shiny fur got pale. His health became very weak the last months. His heart and kidneys couldn't handle the other complications like his thyroid gland that was working too hard. Old age problems. He didn't have pain, but he was sooo tired. He died in my arms...
In his online photo album there are more pics of this very special cat!
What a beautiful, loving, and sweet cat Garfield was. I'm sorry you lost him. I can tell that was a great loss for you. Thank you for sharing him with us.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry about Garfield, but it seems that he lived a long and happy life and died where he loved to be best of all, in your arms. That photo of him with Mickey, his first kitten, is so sweet!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice story of your Garfield and it is nice that he could die in your arms although it is very hard to loose an animal. My first cat I got in 1966 and she died when she was 20 years old of the same deseases as Garfield. But I had had to put her asleep that was one of the worst decisions in my whole life. I have noticed during the years that male cats are very good "fathers" and love kittens. My females always hissed at them and chased them away. Today it's the same with Arthur he is so caring about Rosie while the three ladies are rather behaving very badly with the poor little thing !
ReplyDeleteGarfield was a very handsome and very special cat. I'm sorry that you lost him.
ReplyDeleteWhat a handsome cat he was! And a loving one at that. Sorry to hear of your loss.
ReplyDeleteaahhh, what a truly special cat!
ReplyDeleteI am glad he had a wonderful home to live out his life in.
Touching story of a great cat and friend. 16 years. Then he sure was an important part of the family. I could see on the last picture, from Aug 2003, he did not look well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Garfield was a beautiful and loving cat. I´m so sorry about him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sweet photo with Mickey !
Poor Garfield. He was a wonderful cat with loving humans.
ReplyDeleteGarfield had a beautiful life with you! So he was a good "father" for Mickey! It's always so sad to lose our dear animals.
ReplyDeleteNo...I didn't want that to be the story. Poor Garfield. Why can't our pets life spans match ours any better. I hate to think about my guys getting old.
ReplyDeleteGarfield was wonderful and beautiful.
Before I married my neighbor used to call my boy Garfield because she and her husband could not get Darius right...they were really really country but so sweet.
How awful; I'm so sorry you lost Garfield. Our old cat Scoop is aging rapidly too so every day counts twice.
ReplyDeleteYou brought tears to my eyes. This is such a beautiful story. He was gorgeous and loving and giving and compassionate. You were so lucky that he lived with you.
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