Devoted Friend, Faithful Companion

In Loving Memory ~ Oscar ~ 6/91 - 8/8/08

We lost Oscar a week and a half ago after 17 wonderful years with him. He recently stopped eating and when I took him to the vet he was down to 5.25 pounds. For reference, he weighed 10 pounds most of his life, dropping to and staying around 7.5 pounds in his old age. Blood work indicated kidney disease and it would have taken extreme measures for only a 70% chance of recovery and if he did miraculously recover, it would have taken extensive medication, special food, frequent blood tests, etc., in the aftermath. After many tears and much heartache, we decided it would be better to let him go to prevent further suffering and avoid prolonging the inevitable. We went to the vet as a family to say goodbye and after the kids went to the waiting room, I held my baby for the last time and spoke softly to him through my flood of tears while he drifted off. It was very important to me that I be there for him. I appreciated Nate staying with me and getting me through such a painful ordeal. It was a peaceful end to a wonderful, long life and I truly feel we did the right thing for him.

Oscar was a much-loved member of our family. He adjusted well to the many changes we've experienced over the years from our marriage and many subsequent moves to the births of our three children. I can't praise him enough for how fantastic he was with the kids. He rarely took issue with their antics and patiently let them crawl on him and even quietly tolerated the occasional yank of his tail. We couldn't have asked for a better family pet.

I will never forget the first time I held him when my mom and I picked him out at the SPCA. He was snuggled in with his litter and I specifically wanted him. I have no idea why I had to have him out of the whole bunch of adorable kittens, but I remember saying, "No, not that one...that one, yes, that one." He sat in the palm of my hand and meowed even though he hardly had a voice yet. I set him down on the floor and he sat down, looked at me and meowed again with that crackly little noise and my heart melted. He was the one. We had to wait a couple weeks before we could take him home since he was so young and when we did, he was a ball of energy. He drove our older cat, Kasey, crazy most of the time and I have a great pre-digital picture of him laying on her back with both of them looking at the camera.

Oscar was always quite an athlete, as Nate likes to say, and I vividly remember him as a kitten climbing to the top of the screen on the sliding glass door and having difficulty figuring out how to get down. One of our funniest recollections is of Oscar jumping onto a very high closet shelf to find the Christmas presents my mom had stashed there. He knocked them down and Kasey and Jasper (our other 2 cats at the time) started playing with the catnip-laden toys while he saw the flaw in his plan and wondered how he was going to get down to join in all the fun.

He always loved draping himself around daddy's neck. They snuggled at bedtime every night.

Kathryn was very gentle with her kitty...

Juliana found Oscar to be a great companion and a soft pillow...

What can I say? Third kid, old cat, not so many pictures of Alexander and Oscar together, but they loved each other nevertheless.

He was always right there in the thick of it. No dern kids were going to take his place in the family, thank you very much!


Saying goodbye...


Nothing beats lounging in a sunbeam...

We love you very much and we miss you.