Pets, past and present

[Madcow9000]

I think this thread is actually fitting due to the fact that I lost a very very close feline companion of mine and I still don't think I'm totally over it.

Jack
August 2004 - November 2009

I first met Jack when I was going through a particularly rough spot in my life. I hadn't been getting along with my family and made a break for it. A friend of mine let me stay at his place provided I pay half of the rent, which I did.
At that time I met a girl named Amber who I fell stoopud crazy head over heels for.

How is this relevant to the cat? I'm getting to that.

I put a lot of love into Amber, she was really my first experience with a semi normal relationship and after years of guarding my back I thought I had finally found someone I could let my guard down with.
That ended up being a horrible mistake. I came home from work early one day to find her and my roomate getting their freak on in the living room. They saw me, she flipped out. I was so pissed I couldn't even act. I just turned around and left.

I didn't go home that night and spent most of it just walking around the neighborhood and thinking. I came back later that night and just sat on the proch contemplating how I couldn't trust anybody and for the first time in my life seriously wondering why the hell I would want to continue living in a world this fucked up, when out of the nearby wood pile I hear a mewing sound.

I get up and out of the pile comes running this black and white spotted kitten that couldn't have been more than a few weeks old.
It was really affectionate, didn't have a collar but was really tame. I didn't know if it was a he or a she but me being so stressed out at the time I talked to it and for whatever reason I started calling it Jack. The cat sat in my lap and listened to me lay pretty much my whole shitty existence up to that point out to it.

The cat didn't freak out, it didn't get down and run off or tell me to shut up or judge me for my looks or my choice in music or clothes. It just sat there and purred and was content to just be around me.

After I talked to her for a good few hours I went inside to find Amber and my roomate cuddling on the couch. They didn't even bother hiding it this time and I went inside, got me and the cat something to eat.

Amber wanted to play with the cat, she squeeled and went OOOOHGHHHH how cute!!!!! But Jack didn't want anything to do with her. Jack ran and hid when she tried to pick her up.

I ended up feeling really really drained and decided to go to bed. Jack went with me and I remember she tried to sleep on my forehead for most of the night. The next day I got up before anybody else to find that my roomate had gotten drunk and fell asleep on the couch, face down. Jack had pissed and shit all over his back and in his hair. I knew at that moment that Jack was a keeper.

Eventually I moved out and things got better but I always took Jack with me and no matter how bad things got she was always right there alongside me. We were inseparable. She got everything she could ever want, which seemed to be food. Jack ended up being an immensely fat and happy ball of cat.

Went spent several years of good times together until this November she was running and playing and being really really active. She always was this time of year. She ran into my room and tried to play with me but I had work I needed to get done and she's eternally trying to sit on the arm of my chair and lick my arms so I kicked her out of my room and shut the door on her.

I got done with my work and it was late at night. I had actually just gotten through listening to an episode of the Nerdy Show and decided I'd go get something to eat. I knew something was wrong when I saw Jack wasn't in her usual spot on the couch or the back of the guest bed. I found her lying on the floor in front of the couch in the guest room and she wasn't moving. I turned the light on and still nothing.
I knew what was wrong before I even got there. I touched her and she was ice cold and rigor mortise had already made her stiff as a board. I knew that she would have had to have died just shortly after I kicked her out of my room. She died alone just on the other side of my door and I never noticed. She didn't look like she died painfully, she was lying on her side like she was sunning herself. The sun would have been shining through the window at the time that she died. I assume it was a heart attack because she didn't have any external signs.

It's been about a month and I miss that cat so much. I feel like I lost my best friend honestly. My friends keep trying to tell me to get another pet but I don't want one.

Sorry about the long story. I just thought the story of Jack needed to be told to someone. I buried her in the back yard. I made her a little casket out of cardboard and a head stone made of concrete. I've gotten made fun of for it a bit, that I went to that extreme to bury a dead cat, but she was more than a cat to me.