RIP Louis

When we got our first apartment, even before we were 18 years old, we got out very first pet, one chosen by only us, a beautiful tabby cat. He was so beautiful that we always told people if we were a girl cat we'd have a crush on him. We named him Louis after the character in the Interview with a Vampire series by Anne Rice, Louis de Pointe du Lac. (We were really into vampires back in 1997).

<3 Louis the cat. Taken a couple of days ago. <3
(Mom is currently trying to find a couple more pictures...)

Louis was a cat with a unique personality...the memories we all share of him are funny to us, like how he used to take road trips with us and refuse to be in the cage, so he would try to lay on the dash, or pace along it while we tried to drive, and eventually settle in our lap while we drove. (yeah, it obviously was not safe)

He used to do a funny thing where he would stare at us from across the room, run over to us, jump on our lap, bite us, then run back to the same spot and stare.

We lived in a tiny studio apartment for while and he would lay with us on our mattress on the floor and watch movies with us all weekend long, weekend after weekend, when none of our friends would drive the few extra miles out into the country to hang out with us.

Today we got home from buying a tent for our road trip we are to start tomorrow, and The Mother and Stepdad were not home. About 15 minutes after we got home The Stepdad came in the door.

"We put Louis to sleep" He said.

As strange as it sounds we thought he was joking, he has a dry and strange sense of humour, but behind him came mom with a bundle wrapped in a blanket, crying.

Louis had recently been diagnosed with kidney failure and had lost a lot of weight. Two pounds in the last week, as a matter of fact; and he was never a fat or overweight cat anyway. When they had gotten home earlier he was crying a lot, and couldn't stand very well on his hind-legs. They decided it was time to put him down so they took him to the vet.

We never got to say goodbye. That's the most painful part.

Mom is upset, she doesn't have any cats of her own anymore, we had long relinquished the right to call Louise solely ours. Mom has never not had a cat since she was 7 years old. She is now a crazy cat lady with no cats (at one point she had over 15). She has The Stepdad cat, and will be taking care of our two cats (J-Bug and H-Dog [names altered to protect their identity]) for the entire time we are in Europe the next time around, but that's not really the same.

Needless to say it would have been nice to kiss him goodbye, instead of hug his lifeless body in blanket. We couldn't bare to look at him without life, without his soul. We wish we could have been braver.

Tomorrow, when his body is cold, mom will bury him under the tree in the backyard, where he will join her other two cats, Uni and Jasmine, who died not too long ago, at the ripe old age of 20.

Louise, you were a great cat. A beautiful cat. A good cat. We are happy you are no longer in pain, but you will be missed.