Hobbes Downer, 1988-2006

Late last month my parents had our cat Hobbes put to sleep. It was the humane thing to do because he was really struggling and seemed to be in constant pain, but he had been a part of our family for 18 years, so it's very sad to know he's gone.

Hobbes was, in a way, a rebound cat. About a year after my parents married in 1969 they got two cats: Tiger and Smudgy. Smudgy had a habit of peeing on the curtains, so he went to live on a farm. Tiger, however, lived with us for 18 years. He pre-dated both my brother and me as a part of the Downer household. When he died, in the summer of 1988, it was devastating.

We weren't a cat-less household though. We had picked up another cat four years earlier when we lived in California. Scamper had come with the house we were renting. She lived on the grounds and my brother and I eventually tamed her and she moved with us when we relocated to Nebraska. Still though, losing Tiger was tough.

We quickly decided to get another cat, to fill Tiger's spot in some way. My Mom and I picked out another tiger-striped one at our vet's office and gave him to my Dad as a birthday gift, since it was the first week of October. We named him "Hobbes" because we liked the comic strip a lot and I bore a strange resemblance to Calvin in those days.

Hobbes was a fun kitten, but demonstrated early on that he had a surly disposition and a "his way or the highway" approach to life -- which is typical of most cats, but not common among past Downer cats. In his later years he softened considerably. He became an "only cat" in 2002 when Scamper finally left us. And left us she did. Ever the stray, she wandered off one day at the age of 18 and we never saw her again.

By the Fall of this year, when he turned 18 himself, Hobbes was mostly deaf, had arthritis in his hind legs and bore many scars from battles won and lost over the years. He was housebound by then since he was a bit too proud to back down from any fight, even though his body was no longer up to it.

Now he's gone, and we will miss him. He may not have been the nicest, friendliest cat ever (that would be Esther, the cat I share with Naomi), but he was ours. He was a Downer cat. Now my parents' household is cat-free for the first time since 1969. It's a very strange thing. I'm sure it won't last long. We're cat people after all.