Odie: The Greatest Cat in the World

Odie Mooney

1995 – June 3, 2008

Odie was, simply put, the greatest cat in the world.

He passed away last night, at home, after a couple of weeks of not eating well and losing a lot of weight. The vet visit on Sunday confirmed that all of his blood cell counts were decreasing, which indicated a bone marrow problem. We tried some prescription food with him Sunday evening and yesterday, but he wouldn’t eat anything. We even tried plain tuna last night and he completely ignored it.

Odie was a stray when we found him. Before we were married, Amy was living with some friends in an apartment, and one day as she came home there was a kitty cat outside. She called to the kitty, and he came towards her, and the cat enjoyed the attention – something very unusual for a stray. Amy also noticed that the kitty’s leg had been injured, like it had been broken. She took pity on the stray cat and started feeding him occasionally.

Before long, calling for “kitty” would result in him running towards her, meowing as he came. We took him to the vet, who told us that he was about a year old, and had FIV – the feline version of the HIV virus – and should be kept separate from cats that did not have FIV. With this condition, they said, he could live a couple of years or as many as 10.

His leg had indeed been broken, but had already set and it would be a major ordeal to re-break it and heal it correctly. He didn’t seem to have any trouble getting around, so we left things as they were.

We named him “Odie” after the dog in the Garfield comic strip, for several reasons. First, he came when you called him. He also starting responding to snapping fingers – we’d snap and he’d come running. He also tended to drool a lot. He was always looking for attention, and would let you pet him like a dog – including petting his tummy, something I do NOT recommend trying with other cats (especially if they have claws!).

I kept Odie outside at my parents house, initially, since my sister already had an indoor cat. Amy and I were married in 1997, and he became a part of our family. He was there when we moved into our apartment.

It was always apparent to us that Odie had not always been a stray. He was way too interested in human affection, but also the first time we opened a can at our apartment he went nuts. So we knew he had been fed from a can at some point.

Like a dog, Odie was an over-eater. If we filled his bowl with food, he would eat the entire bowl in one sitting, even if it meant that most of it would come back up later. So we quickly learned to feed him the “right” amount, twice a day, just like a dog.

When we had guests over, including a large party, Odie was always in the middle of it, looking for attention. The picture above was taken at McKenna’s birthday party in December. Odie was right in the middle of it, like he always was.

When McKenna was about 2 and a half years old we discovered that she was having mild allergic reactions to him. After petting him her face would have a minor rash, even if we washed her hands afterwards. So we started looking for another home for him.

After awhile, our friends Kevin and Faith took him in at their apartment, where Odie had his home away from home. Odie spent a few years there, until Kevin went to college, and married housing didn’t allow pets. Meanwhile, we were finishing our basement at our new house that would be a great place for Odie to hang out. So last fall Odie came home.

McKenna and Jeremiah had really begun to enjoy Odie again. We kept wanting to see if McKenna still had an allergy, but McKenna insisted on petting Odie only with her bare feet. Which didn’t bother Odie at all.

A couple of months ago Odie stopped eating as well as he used to. We tried to start using canned food with him, and that improved things, but soon after that he wasn’t eating that very well, either. We took him to the vet about three weeks ago, where they discovered a heart murmur, and found that all of his blood cell counts were low – which indicates that the bone marrow is not doing its job. Last Sunday’s visit confirmed that diagnosis, but we really thought we could get him eating prescription food (or plain tuna) enough to go on for a few weeks. We also thought that this process would last a little longer, but it seemed to happen so quickly.

Even up to the very end, Odie was still a sweet kitty. Last night I was downstairs with the kids playing a video game with them, and Odie came up and sat down right between us. Looking for attention. Naturally, we obliged. We tried to give him lots of extra love over the past couple of days, including a good brushing (which he always loved).

We will miss Odie. I’m really glad that he was able to be at home with us for a few months, and that the kids could get to know him again.

McKenna wants to know if Odie is in heaven. I told her that if dogs and cats go to heaven, Odie is surely there – he was such a loving, sweet, and gentle cat. If Odie is in heaven, his heaven is likely to be a place with lots of hands to pet him and lots of feet for him to rub on.

In many ways, he spoiled us, because after having the greatest cat in the world, any other cat won’t quite do.