Arty the One Man Party

Yesterday, we had Artemis euthanized.  The cancer had progressed to the point where he was no longer digesting food, and he was down to less than half his maximum weight.  Even so, it was incredibly difficult to go through with.  He and Luna have been our sweet kitties for 12 years, since kittenhood.

In remembrance, I will share some old journal entries I wrote when the cats were new additions to the family:

Autumn 1999

Luna's description as a kitten: Dark grey with white feet, she has bigger patches of white on her hind legs, he has a downward pointing arrow on her chest, an upward pointing one between her hind legs, and a white patch that goes over her nose and circles partway around her neck, a little pink nose, beautiful big golden eyes that fade to green in the middle.  She's small, but she's kind of mean.  Sometimes she's really mean, sometimes she's very sweet.  She loves to be wrapped tightly like an enchilada, and even though she's mean and scratchy a lot, she's very shy at first.  She still sometimes runs when I come near.  She is too adorable for words!

Artemis' description as a kitten: He's a lighter grey than Luna, he has a light grey rectangle above his nose, has a black nose, and beautiful eyes like Luna's.  He has a little white on his front paws, and on his back paws he has more white.  He has a white triangle spread under his chin and two spades, on his chest and stomach, with the points touching in the middle.  He is so kind and nice and he barely ever scratches.  He follows you around begging for attention by meowing in his loud voice which he uses to call us out of our beds in the morning to let him and Luna out of the basement.  He and Luna both have very loud, ragged purrs.  They are both so cute and I'm so happy we have kittens!

Now that I sat down to write this, I keep hearing my little garbage can being scooted around the floor behind me, so I leaned around the side of the chair to find that Artemis was playing with it, and when he noticed me he stopped and tried to look innocent.  He repeatedly starts playing with it every time I turn around, back to writing, and then every time I look back at him, he fakes something different.  Once, he rolled on his back and stretched, another time he pretended to be playing with his tail, another time he started cleaning himself, and another time he faked watching the birds outside!

He stayed the same cat his whole life; a sweet boy who never harmed his humans, and would begin to purr the second you walked in the room.