Mama's Boy and Scout
Lazy Ido Kittyboo Stevens was born "Mama's Boy" on May 13th, 1997. For some perspective, I was in 4th grade at the time (proper reaction face -> O_O). A friend's dad was working at the metro when he noticed a pregnant cat roaming around one day. As rescuing feral cats was and still is his hobby, he set a trap and successfully caught the cat family shortly after the litter was born. Technically we don't know the exact date of birth; however, this friend's birthday was on May 13th and it seemed as good a date as any.
Mama's Boy was part of a litter of five. His siblings included Brave (grey tabby female runt), Roamer (orange tabby male), Biter (calico female), and Spitter (grey tabby male), with their mama Scout (grey tabby). Scout was naturally very protective of her kittens and would always be alert. Brave was willing to leave her mother's side quickly and check the surroundings, but Roamer was the one who explored the most. Biter was a teether and Spitter was a hisser.
As for Mama's Boy, well... he loved his mama. Even as he grew in my friend's attic over the first couple months of his life, he managed to squeeze through the bars of his mother's cage to be with her. After all of the kittens were neutered and got their shots, they were sent off to loving families. My family got Mama's Boy and Brave, Roamer stayed with Scout to live with my friend and his dad, Biter became Fiona and went to another friend's family, and Spitter left to live an ideal life on a farm as a barnyard cat.
Mama's Boy and Brave were the 4th and 5th cats I had owned in my 9 short years of life. Allison was my mom's cat when I was a baby and ran away after a couple of years, and Honey and Sugar were temporary cats we watched for a few months when I was in elementary school. The fact that I had an allergy to cats - sneezing and puffy eyes - didn't seem to stop my parents from owning pets. By the time our new kittens arrived on our doorstep, I was already a veteran cat owner and ready to bestow their official names. We placed their cage in the guest bedroom and opened the cage door to see what they would do. Brave was the first to prance out, so her name stuck.
Mama's Boy, on the other hand, preferred to spend the first few hours just sleeping in the cage. So naturally, he became Lazy. For some reason I started calling him Lazy Ido (orange cat... orange soda?), and Kittyboo was intended to be the cat surname of the litter. Hence, Brave Isaboo Kittyboo Stevens. I recently noticed that this made their initials LIKS and BIKS, respectively.
Young Lazy in his new home
Lazy and Brave would spend their first two and a half years in that house. They were indoor cats for the most part, but over time Lazy began to go outside and was introduced to other felines. Even for a fixed young stud like himself, this could be a rough cat neighborhood. One cat in particular would occasionally try to pick fights with him, and I once almost literally kicked this cat off the porch.
I think this experience made Lazy more of a "human cat" who was very friendly and trusting with people but territorial around other cats, with the exception of his sister. His personality was similar to what some people might associate with dogs - he loved human food (especially meat, cheese, and butter... but carbs like potato chips too), and he could always be found playing or sleeping out in the open; if you ever couldn't find him, something was wrong. Though he was bigger than Brave and would sometimes chase her around or wrestle with her, more often than not they could be found sleeping peacefully beside each other. Brave would come to reject her name and avoid most other animals - cats, humans, and everything inbetween. However, she had a soft spot for her cat brother and human family, and most of all for her human mommy.
We moved out to a rural part of the state in 2000, where Lazy would spend the next 14 years of his life. This time Lazy was the first to arrive at the new house, given that Brave refused to come out from under the bed until we had taken it apart completely. Our house was surrounded on two sides by woods, and roadways with cars were minimal. In other words, Cat Heaven.
This is where Lazy became a true hunter. He was now permitted to spend hours outside at a time, and frequently stayed out overnight on his adventures until arriving for breakfast with a mouse gift in his traps. Between ages 2 and 16, Lazy had nearly limitless energy and space with which he wanted to use it.
When he wasn't hunting for his favorite squeaky dish, we would often find him sunbathing on the deck without a care in the world. That wasn't to say that he never had issues outside. On the contrary, that cat had multiple $100 nights on the town when he would come back with mild bites that would require a shave and a shot. Once he was even gone for a whole week, before returning one morning no worse for wear. Perhaps another family had mistakenly picked him up when they saw how awesome he was.
Lazy the hunter
In June 2003 after being a cat family for 15 years of my life, we got a dog. I had nothing against dogs on their own, but was strongly against the idea ever since my brother and dad had first brought it up; didn't they realize that cats and dogs go together about as well as melted chocolate on a cheese pizza? But
one day my dad came home with a golden labrador retriever puppy named Spike Spiegel, at the time roughly the same size and weight as Lazy Ido. If we were going to do this, they would need to be familiar with each other from the very beginning. So I brought Lazy over, and as soon as his instinct kicked in scratches appeared all over my chest. Naturally I tried again just to be sure, and got the same result. Ow. After a few months, Lazy and Brave had taught Spike who was boss in the house. The cats may have been a little rough at first when they saw the dog go diving for treats in their own litter box, but eventually they got along and were friendly enough to sniff each other's butts and even sleep nearby. Spike has since grown to be a much bigger dog, and to this day he hasn't forgotten to keep his distance from felines.
When food was involved, Spike and Lazy were on the same side
It became clear during this time that
Lazy was my cat, and I was his human. My mom was his main caretaker and he showed his appreciation, he was always loving to my brother, and he had a "special relationship" with my dad (whatever that means), but it was me with whom Lazy formed that ubiquitous mammalian bond that's like an unspoken oath of fellowship. Forming this bond is equivalent to them becoming a part of you, and you of them. It's thanks to him that my favorite color is
orange. Throughout middle and high school, he would sleep on my bed and keep me company late into the night. I would spend time with him outside and when I couldn't find him I would call, "Laaaazyyy! Here boy come on in boy, Lazy where aarrrreee yooouuuu?" And if he didn't come in right away he would be at the door in five minutes flat. Lazy didn't typically attack me unless I was actively messing with his tail or bitten area, or if I was trying to untie his bar stool cushion to sneak him upstairs. ^_~ After building up this companionship, I selfishly went away to college in 2005 when he was 8 years old. My mom took care of him and his sister during this time, and they stayed happy and healthy until I left with Jasmin in 2010 to live in Japan.
Lazy = Greg's cat, Greg = Lazy's human
Brave began having issues in 2011. A growth started forming around her eye, and once it was confirmed to be a tumor we were told that it would be impossible to operate at a high success rate on a 14 year old cat. It grew bigger and more painful and soon obstructed her vision. When it finally began to cover her other eye and bleed into her food bowl, my mom decided that it was time to put her out of her misery. Brave passed away on June 17th, 2011 and was buried in front of the house. Though she was one of the most cowardly cats you might come across, Brave was sweet if you played by her rules. If you sat down in the living room or waited by her drawer in the guest room long enough, she would come to rub up against you and jump up to let you pet her (as long as you didn't focus on her tail or any one area for too long). She was a lover of pipe cleaners, and once brought a live bird into the house and under my parents' bed.
After she passed, Lazy initially didn't seem to take much notice. But after a couple weeks... well, I'll let my mom's email from that time tell the story: "Lazy has finally noticed that Brave is missing. He is wearing out his Meow calling for her, looking all over the place. If we Skype you'll probably be able to hear him from the next room. He was a good brother to her." As for the rest of the litter, Roamer ended up with the same condition as Brave and passed in a similar fashion. Scout died around 2013 of advanced age and weakening organs, and though older and slower Fiona continues to carry the Kittyboo torch as of this writing. Spitter's condition is unknown, but I like to believe he's still living it up on the farm.
Lazy and Brave
Jasmin and I finally returned from Japan in 2012 and lived at home for about a half a year with Lazy.
That's when I realized that my cat allergies had virtually vanished. Perhaps I was away from cats long enough to build up some kind of immunity, and never again had issues with sneezing or puffy eyes. In April 2013, my wife and I moved into our own place. I would come back to see Lazy every so often, and that cat managed to stay strong and keep doing his thing. A year later, with Jasmin leaving to help her family in the Philippines for a year and my parents moving out of the rural house,
I decided that it was the perfect opportunity for Lazy to fulfill his destiny as my cat.
Fulfill your destiny!
Lazy moved in with me right before his 17th birthday. This would be a big transition for him; a retirement, if you will. No longer in a rural area, Lazy spent the first month as an indoor cat in his new home. I got him a cat harness for his birthday and trained him to get used to the area, and ever since that point he was a 10-minute-outside cat who would stay in his yard. He was still territorial with the other cats in the neighborhood, but he almost never left the comfort of the yard. When the weather was nice, Lazy could be seen sunbathing or exploring the garden, though for the most part when the 10 minutes were up he would be back at the door waiting to be let in.
Cat walk
The last three years of his life saw Lazy go downhill in subtle ways that could only be pinpointed in retrospect. Though he arrived in 2014 as a full-sized cat with energy, he developed a limp which we think was due to arthritis, and eventually lost the ability to jump up to high places. Among these high places was the kitchen table with a window to the outside world. The outdoor life that he had grown to love as a hunter was not only limited in time and diet of mice and rabbits, but it was difficult for him to find places to look out windows and appreciate the view. Combine this with his advanced age and weakening organs (including an ongoing ear infection and tooth decay), and he began to lose weight and his typical strength.
In spite of this, Jasmin and I would attempt to stimulate his energy indoors with toys and scratching posts, and gave him more attention and love and kitchen scraps than any spoiled cat could hope for. We even added a second litter box and water bowl with hard food on the first floor so he wouldn't have to trek up and down the stairs just to get what he needed. He seemed appreciative and was always more than willing to jump onto our laps on the couch or sleep with us in our bed until the very end. Lazy became more social in his old age and would meow to anyone who looked him in the eye. Even during parties, he would walk through crowds of people to ask for food and attention, and meowed to his advantage every time.
Lazy, age 19
A month ago, just a couple weeks after his 20th birthday, Lazy started peeing in strange areas and stopped eating. We took him to the vet and learned a lot of things that essentially came down to one fact - he was old. They offered to hospitalize him, provide IV fluids, and even do a blood transfusion, but I chose the hospice option and simply asked for an appetite stimulant. That night, worried as hell but determined to give him a fighting chance, I moved all of his essentials to our bedroom (food, water, litter box, brush), including a couch cushion that would give him a boost up to the bed, and began feeding him his can food four times a day to keep him eating on a regular basis.
After a single dose of the appetite stimulant and given a comfortable place to heal, Lazy's energy seemed to return and I saw a twinkle of strength back in his old eyes. He continued to recover well, and even created some new memories by eating Spike's hard food when the dog came to stay with us for a few days, and by joining us in the shower on multiple occasions. During this time, in addition to a visit from his fur brother Spike, he also got to see his whole human family (mommy, daddy, brother, and even baby nephew, who thought Lazy looked weird for a "dog").
The bathtub cat
Lazy passed away on Tuesday, June 27th, 2017. They say that pets will wait until their owners are gone before passing on, and we were out of town for a long weekend. As much as it hurts that I wasn't there for him at the end of his story, perhaps his time had come last month and he pushed himself for a little longer to be a good companion for his human. Yes he was an old cat, but the longer the companion bond, sewn with stronger and stronger threads as time goes on, the harder it is to say goodbye to your pet as well as to that part of yourself.
I could not have asked for a better cat brother, fur baby, companion, or friend. We were lucky to have each other and I want to celebrate his long and happy life. As it goes with mortality, the natural brevity of life is something to be recognized and cherished rather than willfully ignored. That, and with our own brief time on this planet, we should strive to be as awesome as our pets know us to be.
Cherish life
On that note,
here are a few fond memories of him as part of our family during his 20 years (around 96 cat years) and 9+ lives, and I will be adding more as time goes on. Please consider posting below if you have memories of your own.
- The first time Lazy managed to get outside on his own, I was really worried and ran out to find him. One of my fondest memories is him seeing me come after him and jumping into my arms.
- Lazy used to attack my feet under the sheets when he hung out at the end of my bed.
- While we were staying at a temporary house waiting for our rural home to be built, Lazy made his only non-family cat friend and would lay against the glass door with the cat doing the same on the outside.
- I sometimes saw Lazy racing up and down a tree in the backyard just because he could.
- We accidentally left Lazy outside during a few weekend ski trips, and he would survive blizzards by climbing into the thick pipes out front.
- I found a wasp in my room attempting to go after Lazy one time, and it was duly punished.
- Lazy could almost always be found out in the open, but if he did hide he was always terrible at it and his tail would be sticking out.
- Lazy was considered by other people and probably cats to be the mobster king cat of the neighborhood because of how thoroughly he owned his territory. Apparently he had a "tough look" about him when he was younger, but I never saw that side of him.
- When Lazy was young and would do something bad, I would put his head in my mouth to show him who was the alpha cat.
- All those Christmas mornings when we would open Lazy's presents of catnip-filled mice, and he would spend the next hour going crazy all over the living room.
- The many, many, many times that I was depressed, or stressed out, or lonely and Lazy came around to purr and cheer me up. In fact, I had never dealt with the death of a loved one before he came along, so he had been my rock.
- Lazy loved the sounds of birds and the outside, so in lieu of opening a window when he first came to live with me I played bird sounds on YouTube all night in his bathroom.
- I experimented with different feeding times and amounts of Lazy's food to make it easier on both of us (instead of waking up at 5am), and would always update my sister-in-law on the progress despite her apathy.
- Just last year at age 19, Lazy caught a rabbit and a goldfish. Natural hunter.
- A few weeks ago when I came home and Lazy was waiting on the stairs to get his food, one of our friends was over and said, "Look who it is, Lazy!" I popped my head around the corner and as soon as he saw me he let out this long and loud MEEEEOOOOW like he was happy to see me.
- All of Lazy's nicknames - Lazers, Lazer Beam, Laz, La-Z-Boy, Laz Potato Chips, Lazer Doodle.
- The last time I saw Lazy alive was when I was leaving for vacation, and I had just fed him and went downstairs. Evidently he ate quickly, since as we were bringing the last of our bags out the door, there he was there sitting in the middle of the kitchen telling us goodbye.
- Lazy visited me in my dreams the night before he passed. In the dream I had taken him to the vet and learned that he was cold, so I just held him close in a blanket. I believe he could have been dreaming something similar.
- Eric: "I used to love lazy Sunday afternoons where we would just sit around the house and I'd try to find Lazy and Brave and give them lots of attention."
- Eric: "I also remember one time, it must have been winter because all the leaves were off the trees, I saw Lazy in the woods... and I watched him walk across a log to get over the creek, and just the way he navigated the woods I thought man he owns this place haha"
- Wes: "God damn, he had a long f***ing run that one, man. A long, long, long f***ing run... I kinda think it's a loss to all of us... God damn that motherf***er was old."
- Matt: "You gave him a good life, another feral cat success story."
- Vincent: "Everyone loved Lazy man. He will be missed."
- Christina: "So many hugs, we all loved Lazy."
- Mike: "I remember when he brought back the rabbit..it was like just to prove he could still do it"
- Joanne: "I will always remember that silly cat for chatting with me throughout my stay. I was alarmed at first, thinking he needed food or needed to go potty, but turns out he just wanted to talk. I loved leaving the bedroom door open so he could keep me company while I flat-ironed my hair."
- Sasha: "I remember when Lazy would come downstairs and meow at me until I followed him upstairs and then he would jump on the bed and demand to be pet. He was such an amazing and special kitty, he will be missed!"
- Jasmin: "Lazy always kept me company when I cooked."
- Jasmin: Lazy would make me smile when he laid on top of me or rubbed up against my leg. He made me smile a lot - he was a really good cat. He'd always take up the spot I was going to lay down on, so sometimes I had to trick him by running to the kitchen so he would follow me.
- Mom: I remember when you came home from college one time and nursed Lazy back to health when he got sick.
- Mom: Lazy would let Brave take over the couch and our bed like he respected her space. After she passed, he waited a little bit and then started jumping up himself.
- Mom: "Lazy used to have a love affair with butter. If pancakes were being served, he wanted to intercept the butter knife. Then he discovered syrup. From there it progressed to ice cream and on to whatever was being served for a main course. He had to be watched or he might try to drag meat off our dinner plates! I am so amazed that only a few months ago he caught that rabbit. What an appetite he had!"
- Alex: Lazy was an awesome cat and pretty much a baller. I knew him since before you guys got him and he would never let anything phase him. Such a chill orange cat.
- Dad: I remember when we were outside and Lazy had taken a bite out of this mouse, but it was still running around. He just put his paw on it when it tried to run away and he didn't let it out of his sight.
