My beloved Abraham

Yesterday was a very sad day here. Abraham, my black cat, died from massive heart failure.

Abraham was special for sure. He helped me train all the puppies to accept cats. He would walk nonchalantly out into the yard when I had the puppies out and wait for them to approach him. He would tolerate all the puppy stuff unless they got a bit rough and then he would deliver a swat. Immediate respect was ingrained in the minds of the puppies. He never tired of puppies either. One would think that he would not want to be around a bunch of bouncing Labradors but Abraham always wanted to be there. In fact, he wanted to be everywhere we were. If I was working in flower beds, Abe would come over and flop down to watch. He loved to be with his humans more than anything.

Abraham came to Surry as a feral stray who looked as if he had been in a knife fight at a bad bar. His legs were ripped up and his neck had been bitten. I don't know what the other cat looked like but Abe was a mess. It took a while of feeding him before he became tame enough to touch. Eventually, I was able to lure him into a trap and take him to the vets. He was neutered (sorry Abe but it was best), checked over, given his shots and came home to live. He remained somewhat feral for a while. He would scratch or bite if the mood struck him. All the raging male cat hormones were still in his system.

But eventually, Abe became the most docile and loving cat. I could cut his toenails, have him curl up on my lap, scratch his tummy, and do anything to that cat. He was a special one. He would greet me every morning for his breakfast, would sleep in the chair all day, and generally followed me everywhere.

Abraham, we miss you. I wish that we'd had a chance to say Goodbye but maybe that wasn't necessary since we were always saying Hello to each other. Until later, Abe.