My Brave Little Boy 

My Brave little boy, Caesar, passed from this earth this morning.

It was just on Monday that we learned that his recent weight gain was being fueled by a fast growing baseball sized tumor in his abdomen. It had appeared, as if out of nowhere over the last few weeks and seemed to grow in appearance daily. It had reached sufficient size that it was pressing on his stomach and was keeping him from being able to eat.

Eating was one of his favorite things in life. When he first found us leaving a News Year’s Eve party held by his now God Parents (Sean & Leslie), he was homeless and cold. David likes to say, Caesar wrapped me around his paw and said, let’s go! I unzipped my leather jacket and put this tiny 4 pound/4 month old kitten inside. He purred so loudly and we were immediately bound together.

He rode, in my jacket, most of the way home from Justin, TX to our place in North Dallas which is about an hour with only his head sticking out of the front. Just as in that first night, he has always been sweet, gentle and loving, with the most cheerful of dispositions, especially when he was getting fed.

Initially we had thought he was a girl pussycat and selected the name Josie. But the vet quickly corrected us and we moved on to the name Caesar. About a year later we named Caesar’s adopted little sister Josie in tribute to this moment.

Early on we realized that he was going to be a big cat as his paws started to grow and he quickly rocketed up to 20 pounds before we started controlling his portion sizes. He then settled back to about 17 pounds which he held for most of his life.

We put him on a limited diet of just 3 meals a day, which were administered at 8am, Noon and 5pm. He quickly learned this schedule and started to remind me when I was about to miss it. Every day as Noon and 5pm came, he would stand on my desk and start meowing so excitedly. When I’d look over at the clock it was almost always right on time, so we joked that he had learned to tell time.

At any time of day you could ask him “Are you hungry?” and he was sit up at attention and scream in excitement, then meow all the way to the bowl and until you put the food down in front of him. He never seemed to tire of hearing those words.

He was my constant editor for my Genealogical pursuits and listened patiently as I practiced all my presentations over these 16 years. He has been with me for roughly 1/3 of my life thus far and I don’t know how I’ll begin to live without him.

Caesar is preceded in death by his sister Josie who passed about 2.5 years ago and his brother Aristotle, who died in 2007. He is survived by his much younger adoptive brother Evan and his loving daddies. He would sleep on my desk all day and cuddle all day and slept on my pillow next to me most every night. That will be the hardest part for me. Going to bed without him and not having him there to wake me up by licking my forehead when I’m oversleeping.

I’ll miss you sweet kitty!

Your Daddy Dan