As many of you know, I adopted Melvin from FosterCat on April 6, 2002. He won me over when he took his one front leg and lightly stroked my face as I held him on his back like a baby. Even though he turned me into mush with that sweet action, I thought about the idea of bringing to my home for a few weeks to see how he would adjust to my home crew and to observe if my crew would accept him. This was not an impulsive decision. I called Alexa to see if this was an OK plan and she consented. Of course my love affair with Melvin really began when I first saw him as he hid in his carrier for cat adoption day at “My Three Cats”. I am including a picture of Melvin.

I made this carrot and he used to carry it all over the house.......up and down stairs. When I worked at “My Three Cats”, a pet supplies store, on West Liberty Ave in Mt. Lebanon, I was permitted to take Melvin to work with me. He would “woo” the ladies with his antics by racing through the store with this carrot. Women dressed for work in beautiful outfits would be found kneeling on the floor just to fuss over him. What a ham he was. When it was time for me to close the store, Melvin would take a jump on a high front window and climb to the top perch of the highest cat tree on display. This seemed to be his routine and I would have to coax him down any way I could. He and I even appeared in the local paper when they did a story on cat adoptions.

It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that with a vet’s assistance Melvin passed on Memorial Day, May 26th. I had rushed him to the vet when I saw much blood in his watery stool. He was admitted to the animal hospital on May 23rd. After doing many tests, IV’s and X-rays... Melvin was refusing to eat and starting to retain fluid. His organs were shutting down and his breathing was labored. Jack and I would visit and hold him while he was at the hospital, thinking that familiarity would perk him up in some way but nothing helped. I even pureed special food for him and he showed no interest to something that he loved to eat in the past. As all of you pet owners know this is a very sad time for us.

Jack was telling me this morning that he felt losing Melvin had a bigger impact on him that any of our other pets because they always had breakfast together. Jack would sit at the kitchen island and Melvin would hop up and head butt his shoulder until Jack shared something with him. It was cute even though many people would cringe at the idea of a cat being on that island. Oh well, I could go on and on...

Terry