Remembering Austin

Karen Jo:  Here is Austin in action, which is how I most remember him.  There are things about Austin that I never got around to blogging about, so I thought I would do a remembrance post about him.  He was the most silent cat I have ever known.  All I ever heard out of him were the oofs and hunhs he made while rasslin'.  I never heard him meow at all.  He had other ways of communicating with me.  When he wanted to remind me that it was time to feed the kitties he would just stand and stare at me.  Every kitty here has a flat dish for canned food and a bowl for kibble.  Austin knew which ones were his and always ate out of his first.  When I would pick up his canned food dish, he would leap up and grab it.  I would show him that it was still empty and he would stand by where I would put it down full.  Sometimes he would run into the kitchen to watch me fill it, then run back to his room to wait for it.  This didn't stop him from sampling Rocio's dish as soon as I put it down and often Rocio would eat out of Austin's dish while Austin tried his.  As far as I know Austin only ate kibble out of his bowl.

I wear fuzzy plush socks to bed to keep my feet warm.  Austin thought they made great toys while they were on my feet.  He would grab at them and gently bite my toes.  He would rub his head all over them.  Once I took them off, he had no interest in them.  He never got tired of rasslin'.  Once he finished with Rocio (meaning Rocio ran off) he would look around for Spyro for another round.  After Spyro ran off, he would check to see if Oja was around.  She rarely was.  She knew what was coming and wanted no part of it.

I don't remember Austin being terribly interested in the toys on the floor, though he would play with them.  He loved the wand toys and would leap up to get them.  Da Bird is much in need of new feathers now, he played so hard with it.  He was just so full of life and fun that it is very sad to remember that he is gone.  I have some nice photos and memories of him and he might have send a present from the Bridge.  There is a new kitty in the house named Bambino.

Tuesday, Toesday

Mom just loves my toehawks, so I let her snap this picture. We found a new game to play today. She rolls a ball to me and I bat it back to her. We can do this for a while, then I get excited and start batting it all over the room. Then that dratted ball goes somewhere I can't get to it anymore, but Mom gets it for me and we play the game some more, until I get tired of it and just lie down to rest.

Mom has been lifting me up to my platform when she hears the birdies, but today I showed her that I can get up there all by myself. This made her very happy for some reason.

Karen Jo: It made me happy because I now know that you realize that the platform is yours and you can do whatever you want with it. I do wish you would scratch on it instead of on the carpet and couch, though.

Aw, I don't do that much scratching, anyway.

Karen Jo: That's true.

I do like the nip you put all over it. Maybe I will scratch on it some. Those were pretty lame toys you brought me home tonight.

Karen Jo: They were the only type in the store that I hadn't bought you yet. They are round and fuzzy. You didn't have any fuzzy toys before.

I don't know if I like them. I totally ignored them when you gave them to me.

Karen Jo: We'll see if you play with them tonight. At least you had lots more fun with the red bug.

Mom was mean to me last night. We were getting ready for bed and she was giving me my scritches and she suddenly flipped the covers over on me.

Karen Jo: You left out the part where you scratched my hand again. I am sorry that flipping the corner of the covers over you startled you so much. I thought it would be fun for you.

It scared the heck out of me. I ran away and didn't come back until you were asleep. At least you don't do weird stuff to me while you are sleeping.

Karen Jo: I won't ever do that to you again, Herman. I do like it when you sleep with me.

Gracie wrote this very nice poem for Herman and me:

Herman & Karen Jo

My name is Herman and I always wanted a good home
Unfortunately, I was neglected and left all alone to roam.

Through adoption Karen came to meet me
She had a can of tuna she gave to me while on the floor on her knees.

Now all my dreams have come true
I have a forever home, love, mom, and a blog that I can come and visit you.

Thank you very much, Gracie. We really appreciate it.