Coloration: Black and White Likes: Having his ears gently rubbed. Pet-Peeves: Other cats! Favorite Toy: He was not a big toy guy. Favorite Nap Spot: His round bed. Favorite Food: TUNA! Skills: He would cover his eyes when napping during the day. Dwells:
indoors and outdoors Arrival Story: Ian came to me in 1990, he had turned up at a co-worker's apartment complex, and I had been looking for a friend for my 3-year old ginger tabby Mala. The co-worker put a picture of Ian up on the bulletin board, I inquired, and she brought him to work a few days later. He sat in his carrier in my office for half an hour, meowing pitifully, until I could get away to take him home.
He and Mala never got along famously, but they tolerated one another. Ian had probably been dumped because he was not fastidious about peeing in his litter box. But we dealt with that. He was not a big snuggly, pick-me-up kitty, but he would curl up on the couch with 10 people sitting in the living room gabbing, and he'd go to sleep, sometimes on his back with his feet up in the air. Guests just loved it!
When I moved from Texas to California, he and Mala had to share quarters with Jericho, my husband's Siamese mix. Ian and Jericho had spray-marking battles! So we had no choice but to let Ian be an indoor-outdoor cat.
He never went far. He would lounge around in the back yard on warm summer days. He would be waiting for us on the porch each afternoon when we came home from work. One day we came home and he was sitting on the door mat instead of walking up to greet us, so we knew he was ill. We took him to the vet the next morning and were told he had pancreatitis. They treated him, he got better, and he was fine. He also had a heart murmur but it never seemed to bother him.
Eventually when we purchased a home outside our immediate area, we decided we needed an apartment in town since it was too far to commute to the new home each day to and from work. So Ian became an indoor kitty again and lived in the apartment. By this time he was 17 years old, so he did not seem to mind.
He started going deaf around that time, but otherwise he seemed fine. His kidneys were ok for a guy of his age. At about 18 he stopped grooming himself much, so we helped him. One of the photos at left is of him laying on the recliner chair just after we brought him back from the vet with his cancer diagnosis. Looks a bit scruffy!
In November of 2007 we took him and his then partner, Aggie (we'd lost Mala in 1999) to be boarded with our vet as we went out of town for Thanksgiving week. They called us to tell us he had lost some weight, so we approved them running some tests.
They called back the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to tell us he had cancer - lymphoma. However, they said, since he is still eating and does not seem to be in any pain, they could put him on prednisone, which would make him feel even better, increase his appetite, and help prolong his quality of life.
We returned home after the holiday and picked up Ian and Aggie. We spent a lot of quality time with Ian between then and January. In January, Aggie suddenly stopped eating one day and was staring at the floor. We immediately knew something was wrong and so took her to the vet. She also had lymphoma, far more advanced than Ian's had been. She had hidden it from us very well. The next day she had great difficulty breathing, so we took her to the vet and they recommended euthanasia.
Ian survived 10 days after Aggie. He ate up until the last day. We think he had a stroke or heart attack in the middle of the night. He woke us up falling over against the closet door. We whisked him to the emergency vet at 1am in the morning. We said our good-byes and they sent him lovingly over the Rainbow Bridge to join his old sort-of pal Mala.
We miss you, Ian! Bio: Ian LOVED to have his ears and face rubbed rubbed rubbed! In his later years he loved to sit beside one of us in the recliner chair while we watched TV. Toward the end he could not jump on the bed, so we had to help him. He would meow at us when he wanted us to put him on the bed. He loved to sleep there.
When Ian was younger, maybe 15, his roommate Jericho caught a bird and killed it. We left Jericho with his prize, but a short while later we heard Ian meowing and we opened the door, and there he was with the dead bird in his mouth, an expression on his face that said, "Look, mom and dad, what I did!!!" He wasn't interested in eating the bird, either. He just wanted to show us! (We do not condone house cats killing birds, and all but one of our current cats are kept inside 24-7). The Groups I'm In: *Games and Friends for All*, FANCYPANTS CAFE, Welcome Waggin' for Dogsters and Catsters, Catster Marketplace, CATSTERHOLICS!!!, Friends of the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, Pawsome Pages, The Hazel Lucy Appreciation Society, ~~~*♥Dog Park USA♥*~~~ I've Been On Catster Since:
Ask a Cat Lady: Why Does My Cat Love Knocking Things Down?
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