Bye Sweet Toby

Toby posing with Meredith and Neil on Meredith's first Christmas.

Today the Geurin family had to say goodbye to a long-time furry family member. And before any of you non-animal people say anything, It was a sad day because Toby had been with us for at least 13 years - surely you can appreciate how tough it is to lose anyone that has been with you through that many years.

I was a sophomore in High School when Toby joined our family. My brother and I were up at Martin HS for some sort of after school activity (band something I am sure) and there happened to be this very sad looking kitten wandering through the parking lot. At the time, our house seemed to be the destination for every lost cat in the metroplex - my mom and I were (and some would argue, still are) suckers for strays, my brother had a great love for animals too - and my dad was forced along for the ride. Anyway, somehow this little kitten found his way to the pizza we were eating and took to it. Neil and I were convinced that meant that he was starving to death and decided that we had to sneak him home in Neil's tiny Geo Metro. I remember plotting the whole way home how we were going to tell Mom and how we would keep him from Dad. My brother's room was in the basement of our house, so we just decided the kitten would stay with him until we figured something else out.

Luckily, Toby has quite a personality and soon, on his trips outside one night, he ran into my Dad and followed him around like a lost dog and my dad thought it was great. So soon after we stopped hiding him in the basement and he got to join our family. At this point, the poor starving kitty is still eating like he may never again see a meal. This seemed to be heightened while Dad and Toby further bonded - Dad came back from a hunting trip with goose and apparently that was quite a tasty treat for our Toby! We always struggle with what to name our pets, and he actually got his name from the situation of him eating whatever was in sight. My friend Amber, had a nephew in preschool and they used the word "Toby" as a polite way to describe a certain stinky bodily function - hmmm, now I feel funny admitting that (he did eventually grow out of that by the way!)

Soon, the vet started warning my mom that Toby's weight was an issue - she had to buy all this special diet food and she did that for years - I don't think he ever lost a pound (either those pricey vet foods aren't all they are cracked up to be or Toby was sneaking food from the other cats and handouts from his bud, my dad). Mom finally gave in and just decided Toby was meant to be a big guy. Although his high-pitched girly meow and his teeny tiny feet seemed to suggest maybe he wasn't truly destined for his size, but he was happy.

Toby was always a favorite of everyone - I still have high school friends that check up on Toby and even people that are "not cat people" love Toby. He developed a nightly routine of waiting for my dad to get home from work and crying when he heard him open the garage door. He was great with Meredith - she could hug him and pet him and play with him, all while he sat quietly letting her. He even put up with our loud crazy dog on her occassional visits to his home. My Godsisters had even spread the word of our Toby to all their friends - they even tried to get him to be a part of a play one time because everyone thought he was so great! Plus, because of my mom's love of cats, there have been a few new ones added to their house in the 13 years he was around. Other cats that we have had always seemed to make life hard for the new guys in the house. Not Toby. It was almost like he knew how great he had it to be living with my mom and dad and so he was going to just be happy for every little creature that would live there too.

So these past few weeks when Toby started dropping weight, we knew he must not be feeling good. My mom was too sad to take him to the vet, so I went with him today and then my mom and dad joined me to tell him goodbye, so it has just been a hard day. But I am happy to know he is feeling much better now and is probably eating all the pizza or goose he wants and enjoying every last bite!