Ode to Leroy

I’m not sure how to begin….maybe I should start out by telling you that I am not a cat person and Leroy was a cat. Leroy was such a unique cat with so much personality that you couldn’t help but love him. I remember when he was in his prime – he looked like a mini panther. All black, muscular, sleek, and definitely a hunter. When I stroked his back and went all the way to the tip of his tail, I could feel the muscle in his tail even! He was a strong cat for a long time. He was big too! Larger than the housecats I was used to seeing growing up. Leroy’s head was the size of my two fists combined! He weighed around 15 lbs in his prime and was all muscle! He regularly defended his territory, fighting off many cats that attempted to move in on his area. He also scared the heck out of my parents' dogs and they are labs! He brought home many “presents” to his owner/Mom, my Aunt Carol. His conquests included lots of lizards, mice, and birds that he would bring to her (much to her dismay). He was a very proud cat and very vocal. He would “talk” to you when you came into the room and answer you when you talked to him. He had a very strong and loud voice that he used often – especially when it was dinnertime! He was always begging for treats…and when you gave him a couple, he’d ask for more! He was funny. He loved having his chin scratched and LOVED being on your lap! If there were a couple people on the couch, he would test out each lap and settle on the one he deemed best. Once he settled in and you started petting him, he would start drooling!! Honest to Pete!! Leroy would have droplets of drool sliding down his whiskers and his purr was so strong you could hear it several feet away. One thing I almost forgot about (thank you Christine) - Leroy LOVED having his coat vacuumed! Too funny! He would actually come running when the vacuum was turned on (while my parents' dogs would run away). He loved having the excess hair vacuumed out of his coat-it was the funniest thing I've ever seen! Another quirk was that Leroy liked to get into cupboards. He would spend as much time as he needed to open up the cupboard under my kitchen sink or bathroom sink. Once he got inside, he liked to push everything out of the cabinet. Not sure if he just thought it needed to be rearranged or if he planned to move into the space!



Leroy had a good and long life. As of today, Leroy was 22 years old! I verified this with the vet because I always thought my aunt was exaggerating his age. But no…he was 22! I didn’t know cats could even live that long! It wasn’t until the past couple of months that his health started to fade – Carol had been taking him in to the vet every few days to get fluids and B vitamins. He had become much less active in the last few years, as we all do when we age. But he was still able to get around without any trouble. In the past couple of months his kidneys started to go and at the end the vet said he had dementia too. In the last couple of days he had been having a lot of trouble walking, dragging his back legs a lot, and he couldn’t see. He would try to walk into another room and then walk right into a wall or a door. He had also fallen off the bed a couple times because he had gotten up and didn’t realize where he was. Today when I got home, Carol was gone, so I checked on Leroy to see how he was doing. He was laying on the floor and his breathing was labored. It was heart wrenching to see him like that. I held him for awhile until Carol got home and then we took him into the vet to put him to sleep. He had deteriorated so much that it seemed like he almost went before the vet even injected him. It was definitely time for him to go…he was a shadow of his former self at that point. But I will always remember him as the strong little panther that strutted around the house and greeted me with his loud MEOW! He was one of the few cats I will ever love and he will definitely be missed! Rest in Peace Leroy! XOXO