Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Our cat, Buddy, needed to be put down this morning.  Buddy has been sick for a couple months and test results showed that he had feline leukemia.  There was nothing that could be done and he was pretty sick.

 Buddy came into Pat's life 16 years ago as a stray and has been here ever since (except for 1 month when Buddy ran away).  Buddy was a very loving cat and became "best buds" with my cat, Baxter when I came into the picture nearly 14 years ago.  Buddy and Pat were the best of friends and wherever Pat was, Buddy was usually close behind.  Buddy loved to get outside everyday and lay in the sun and roll in the dirt.  He was also a lap cat and could easily be found laying on someone's lap each night.  Every time we would play a board game on the floor, Buddy was always right there, trying to lay on the board.  Buddy LOVED turkey, tuna, and chicken.  Whenever Pat would bring home KFC, Buddy would soon be right next to the table trying any way to get at the chicken on our plates.  As soon as the bones would go in the trash, Buddy was trying to get at them and most times he was successful.  One time, we had McDonald's for supper and Patrick wasn't paying attention and Buddy jumped up and grabbed one of Patrick's nuggets.  Patrick said, "Dad, Buddy stole my nugget!" That is still one of our favorite sayings!

Buddy was a great cat and gave us lots of love and laughter over the years.  He will be deeply missed by all of us as well as Baxter.  Baxter will definitely have some lonely days ahead without Buddy.  Tonight we will have a little ceremony at Buddy's grave in our back yard and probably share some memories of Buddy.  The kids each wrote a note to Buddy to place in the box.  We also put a foil ball in the box, one of Buddy's favorite toys.  We can only hope, that he is in heaven, sitting on Grandpa Bill's lap like he used to do so many years ago.