Chris was always a happy-go-lucky cat. When we introduced Puck, he accepted him right away. We thought introducing Frankie to our home would go the same way. It didn’t. Chris immediately saw him as a threat and became aggressive towards him.

It took a while but eventually an uneasy truce emerged. that truce was fragile, and fights would often erupt.

After about a month, Chris decided he wanted to be Frankie’s friend but after his earlier behavior, Frankie wasn’t having it. It took several more months before their relationship became relatively okay.

When we introduced Floki to our home Chris was better behaved. I suppose a kitten is far less threatening than a full-grown male cat.

Soon, a sort of love triangle developed in our house. Floki liked Chris, Chris liked Frankie, and Frankie liked me. Sometimes, well, most of the time, Chris would get jealous when Frankie paid attention to me. I was never sure if Chris was jealous because I was paying attention to Frankie or because Frankie was paying attention to me. This usually happened when I was lying in bed winding down for the evening.

Despite his jealous moments, one of his best qualities was his affection for others, both cats and humans. I got so many comments from people who said they wished their cats got along like our cats did. The truth is, Chris was the main reason that happened. He was like the glue that held the other cats together.

Now that Chris is gone, I hope Floki and Frankie can learn to be close.

When we moved back to Florida, Chris’s talent for opening doors flourished.

He also like being high up in the air.

One of the cute things he did was hang out with Rose while she got ready in the morning and put her makeup on.

Next time I’ll talk about his lizard catching ability.

We had to make the difficult decision to let Chris go today.

I am sitting alone in the vet’s parking lot. I am not in a mental state to drive just yet. My wife is in Tampa preparing for a cruise with her managers. She offered to come back but I told her not to.

I will write more but not now.

Just before noon, my wife noticed Chris under the dining room table. He was breathing hard and was lying in urine.

I immediately called our vet but they close at noon and didn’t answer the phone. Instead I brought him to the emergency vet.

They brought him to the back but didn’t want me to go with. They said he has fluid in his lungs. They put him on oxygen and will attempt to remove the fluid. If that is successful, they will go over the next steps.

I don’t usually ask for prayers but they would be appreciated now.

This post was from September of 2016. He went in for an eye infection, but we learned about the infection in his ear, which has never really gone away because of his ear polyps.

Here is a post from 2016 that I had forgotten about. I miss Puck.