Thursday, August 7, 2014

Blackjack

Blackjack Macquaid Holland
April 17, 1996 - August 7, 2014

Blackjack was born on April 17, 1996 as one of three cats in a litter to our cat to the time, Tobi.  Blackjack got his name, not just from his black fur (the only one of his litter to have black fur), but because he was the only one to survive of the litter.  Therefore, we knew he was lucky and named him Blackjack. 

On September 10, 2002, we lost his mother, Tobi.  She was just 8 years old at the time of her death.  We tried getting Blackjack a new friend, Gabby, but she and him could not get along, so we had to give her away.  For the past 11 years, we lived with Blackjack as our only cat, and boy was he a great cat.

Blackjack had many quirks about him that made him so special to us.  He would get up on his back two legs and stand just for a piece of food.  He would always meow or "urf" as we called it, if you held his tail.  If he was asleep, and you pet him, he would always, without fail, wake up with an "URRRRRF!"  And boy, did he love his tuna.

About two years ago we found out he had kidney disease, so we had to start giving him special treatment the past couple of years, from sub-q (subcutaneous fluids) to medicine and a special diet.  He was semi-close to not making it, but even at 16, we knew it was too soon for him to go.

We lost Blackjack today because of an incident with a coyote, but the fortunate thing is that we were able to recover his body and say goodbye.  He is buried right next to his mother.  Burying him was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do. 

Blackjack may have been bothered by things we did to him such as holding his tail, but we all knew we loved him so much.  He was the fifth member of our family.  I feel like a lost a brother or a best friend, because that's kind of like what he was to me.  For 18 of the 25 years of my life, Blackjack was our cat, our friend, our companion, and he will be deeply and greatly missed.  I love you Blackjack.  RIP.

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