An Ode To My Monster

We lost our oldest cat last night. He passed away in his sleep sometime between 3 a.m & 7 a.m. Moki (aka The Monster) would have been 18 on the 2nd of April. He was one of a litter of three kittens that were born to a friend's female cat and at the time we were working at a shop with an abundance of mice. The owner wanted to have a resident cat so at age 6 weeks, Moki took up residence. He wasn't all that much bigger than the mice, but he grew rapidly with all the pampering. DH & I were usually the first ones there in the morning and even before we pulled into a parking space, Moki would be running from window to window to greet us. His morning treat was canned cat food and I'd divide the can like a pie into six wedges for Monday - Saturday. But Moki was a con-kitten - one Saturday he managed to convince the various co-workers who showed up at different times that no one had been there yet to feed him. As a result, he managed to scarf down 5/6th of a fresh can over the course of the day - something we didn't realize until we compared notes on Monday.

When the company went out of business a couple years later, we volunteered to take Moki and he was part of our family from then on. He grew into being a large cat, affectionate, loud, at times exasperating, but lovable. His early housemates, Patches & Sparky, passed on at 23 & 18, and he was joined by Tiger (who will be 14 this year) and Callie (approximately 12 or 13 now). We often described Moki as being "dumb as a box of rocks", but it was said with affection. I'm going to miss waking up to find that my neck is cricked because he stole my pillow in the middle of the night. Rest in peace, my sweet Monster.