Midnight

I was there when he was born.

In the spring of 2009 there was a stray cat at the Parry's house. Jo Lynn couldn't help but to feed the cat, and before long noticed it's belly was swollen. She assumed it had worms and took it to a veterinarian. The vet informed her it was pregnant and would soon have kittens. Then Jo Lynn started letting her in the house, and while we were home for 4th of July weekend the cat began having kittens in the living room under a card table.Jo Lynn says in all her time on the farm she had hundreds of cats, but never saw them give birth. Jo Lynn knelt down to watch the process take place, and I was also interested to take advantage of this rare opportunity.We watched her deliver a total of 5 kittens be born.

By summer Sarah and I already knew we would be moving to Lubbock, TX, about 12 hours from home. We both had grown up with cats in our home, and we knew immediately we would like to take one kitten to be ours. The choice was easy, one female kitten had obvious mustache pattern in the coloring on her face. I then convinced Sarah we would need a second kitten to keep the first company. We chose the next most unique looking kitten, a male who's coloring was almost entirely black except for his toes and a small white patch on his belly.

We finished our move to Lubbock. The kittens were weened from their mother, the kittens were spayed and neutered in Rolla, and my parents brought them to us a few weeks later in September when they visited. Kittens are a lot of fun, but also very mischievous. They also have a lot to learn when they're so young. We decided to name them Mustache and Midnight. Before he was declawed he would constantly get his claws stuck on the couch cover fabric, he seemed to have a hard time understanding how to retract his claws. Mustache seemed to be the more mischievous one, although hindsight is always 20/20, and I think the encouraged each other.

There's much to say about the time we spent together, but really it's pretty well summed up in the last day I spent with him. His last day was filled with so many of his usual peculiarities. We woke up with him lying on the foot of the bed, taking up his fair share of space. He was downstairs before we were, because by now he knew that we don't spend much time upstairs during the day. He greeted us as we came down by looking back at us from the desk in the kitchen with the sun shining in on him. 

He spent that day as usual fighting me for control of my computer chair. It's the reason we bought him his own dog bed to lay in. When I would get up from the chair he would immediately climb in. He would cry when you made him leave the chair. Multiple times throughout the day he would stand in front of the chair and stare up at me waiting to be invited into my lap. 

He had recently started not being satisfied with my lap, but also needing to lay on one of my arms too. At this point he would purr loud enough for Sarah to hear him in the kitchen. She would usually comment that she could hear him, and she did that day too. 

He would typically greet us at the door when we came home, and he did that day too. 

The only routine we didn't get to do that day was supper. He would sit by his bowl as I had trained him, because he knew he didn't get fed wet cat food until he was sitting against the wall by the bowl. I had to do this otherwise he would literally knock the food out of your hand as you were trying to put it in the bowl. For years now though he would wait at that spot, not patiently, crying multiple times to remind you that he hadn't been fed yet. 

I was there when he passed. With an obviously loud cry to let you know something wasn't right, and then he was gone. 

List of Bad Habits:

Stealing my chair

Sitting in my lap when I have my dress clothes on

Barging into the bathroom on cold mornings to enjoy the heater and fuzzy bath mat, but causing the door to swing wide open and let all of the heat out. 

Biting the outside of the shower curtain to play with the water hitting the inside of the curtain, which would leave holes in the bottom of the curtain.

Laying in the bottom of any closet and getting fur all over the clothes. 

Opening the basement door to explore, even though he knows he's not supposed to be down there.

List of Good Habits:
Reminding you that he hadn't been fed, otherwise he would wake you up at night or in the morning, so I appreciated the vocal reminder before going to bed.
Keeping me company and warm, only when he felt like it.
Keeping his sister entertained...

Google Photos Album with a few pictures...
https://goo.gl/photos/MMm34EF5TacctKrj8