I’m Going to Miss Him – Coal the Cat Passed Away

You may not be familiar with Coal the Cat, but I’m going to miss him.  If you want to read the previous posts up to this point, they’re here, here, and here.

Coal showed up at our front door around midnight on 10 December 2008.  I heard meowing when I went to get a drink and saw him outside through the window.  It was seriously cold out and it took only a bit of coaxing to get him to come inside.  Cindy and her niece Stevie had seen him earlier that night while doing the nightly walk around the storage facility she managed and we lived at but figured he’d go back to his home.  He didn’t have any tags and after getting a better look at him it seems he was out on his own for a while after likely being abandoned due to a home foreclosure.

I woke Cindy up after he came inside and everything seemed pretty good when he crawled into bed with Stevie.  We eventually gave him to Stevie as a Christmas present   The pics below are from the day after he showed up on our front porch.  I took him down to the vet to have him scanned for a chip and while they found one, it was from the other end of the valley and from several years before.  The number in the registration information had been disconnected so we decided it was finders keepers and added a furry member to the family.  I’d thought of keeping him, but there were a few things that kept that from happening.  Still, he found a good home and I was happy with that

Coal the cat - First day in our home

Coal the cat - He sure was skinny!

Coal the Cat - Even when he was skinny and hungry he was curious a

Coal the Cat - He wasn't sure about much at first...

Coal the Cat - He didn't want to stand still for pictures, either

Coal the Cat - Look at those big, yellow eyes 8)

He was curious, but skittish which was understandable considering his circumstances.  He didn’t like to be picked up much, but he’d come and want to be petted and loved after he figured out that we weren’t going to leave him like someone else had.  Eventually he moved down to Arizona with Cindy’s sister and her family and then back up to Vegas a while later.

Coal the Cat - I last saw him on Thanksgiving Day in 2009

The last time I saw Coal was on Thanksgiving Day last year when I went to Cindy’s sister’s place for dinner.  He was the same cat I remembered and he seemed to remember me as well

I got word today that he had to be put down earlier in the morning.  He’d been losing weight and not doing too well for a while so Cindy’s sister and her family took him to the vet where he was diagnosed with cancer.  From what I understand, there was nothing they could really do for him and he’d only get sicker and hurt more over time so they did what was best for him and let him go.

Coal had been abandoned at one point and we didn’t have him for all that long, but I’m glad we had him while it lasted   He was a good cat and we gave him a good home for the year and a half we could.  He spent the last part of his life with a loving family and a couple of other cats he could play with while being spoiled with treats like tuna, cottage cheese, and plenty of toys.

I’m going to miss him.