Goodbye, Little Buddy....

And God asked the feline spirit

Are you ready to come home?

Oh, yes, quite so, replied the precious soul

And, as a cat, you know I am most able

To decide anything for myself.

Are you coming then? asked God.

Soon, replied the whiskered angel

But I must come slowly

For my human friends are troubled

For you see, they need me, quite certainly.

But don't they understand? asked God

That you'll never leave them?

That your souls are intertwined.

For all eternity?

That nothing is created or destroyed?

It just is....forever and ever and ever.

Eventually they will understand,

Replied the glorious cat

For I will whisper into their hearts

That I am always with them

I just am....forever and ever and ever.
Author Unknown

Our beloved and loyal pal, Rizzo died on Sunday morning at 2:50am as a result of a tumor.

This was all so sudden. That day, he was fine. In fact, he was even more playful than usual.

In the morning, I had planned to go to the library. But I never made it, and instead spent the time playing and cuddling with him. Of course, now I am so grateful that was how I spent the morning. He likes to play this game where I am in the basement, and he meows for me to chase him upstairs where he "hides" in a box. Only, this time, he hid behind the basement door. And one of those times, he closed the door on me! I was laughing so hard and I knew that he was loving the trick!

But around dinnertime, he got sick. There was something in his eyes that I cannot explain that told me something was really wrong. We wasted no time in getting him to the hospital. Once there, his condition deteriorated to the point where he needed to be put into an oxygen cage to help him stop panting. The doctors were so confused since his symptoms could not be explained by any diagnosis. As the night progressed, and his condition worsened, it became clear that we needed to make some decisions. We began to consider the possibility that he ate something that was lodged somewhere in his digestive tract. So, as a last attempt to save him, we gave the OK for surgery. Once he was in surgery, they discovered a tumor between his large and small intestines. We knew then that we had no choice but to say goodbye.

What we didn't know until then was that Rizzo was a miracle cat. The doctor found that he had a congenital deformity of many of his digestive organs, including his stomach. Rizzo was never once sick throughout his life, so we had no idea that he had these issues.

To us, Rizzo was more than a cat. He was our child who we loved tremendously. I wish that everyone reading this could understand how important he was to us.

Rizzo loved everyone. It didn't matter whether you were one of his beloved Aunts, the cable guy, or the vet, for that matter. If you so much as glanced in his direction, he took that as an invitation for a cuddle. He was so incredibly tolerant of everything- we could pick him up and carry him around and he just went along with it. As you could see from the pictures, I got a kick out of dressing him up. Stuart tried to convince Rizzo to bite me for that.

Believe it or not, Rizzo had a smile. We always noticed that when he was content, his mouth would curl up on the sides. And I must say, he was content pretty often. He found happiness in pretty much everything.

And I think he was a genius. I had my doubts early on, but with the passing of his brother Gonzo in 2006, Rizzo began to have to think for himself. You see, Gonzo was the alpha cat, and he seemed to make all of the decisions for his brother. I am sure that Rizzo grieved for his bro, but we never saw his true personality until he had that opportunity. Rizzo would actually tell us when it was time to have his nails clipped by sitting in his "nail clipping" chair, and also by making us follow him to his scratching post, where he would show us that he needed a pedicure.

But by far, one of Rizzo's favorite things in life was his wet cat food, known as "TOOOOONA!!!". Toooona was actually a can of cheap Fancy Feast flaked tuna. We tried the healther more expensive stuff, but he preferred that. We could bring him from anywhere in the house with lighting speed by just saying the word. Or we could say anything that rhymed like "tool", "blue" etc. etc. But the best part was that Rizzo could speak the word with sort of a two-syllable meow that he only used when preparing to eat his tooona. Sort of like "rawr-rawr..."

I could go on and on with the things that set Rizzo apart from other cats. I just hope that everyone reading this realizes the importance of loving their pets unconditionally. I am eternally grateful that I spent time playing with Rizzo the morning he died. Please remember that with your own pets. I hope that I left him with some good memories to take to kitty heaven. Maybe then no one up there will notice the patch of fur that needed to be shaved off....

Rizzo, we will never forget you. I couldn't look at you without smiling. From the day I met you, you made my heart happier, and I am so happy that we were able to give you a home full of love. Dad and I will never forget you, and we will always remember the joy you brought us. Rest in peace, little man.

The day I met the boys. Who could have resisted this??

Back when they used to cuddle


I don't think he liked this shirt, but he looked darn cute, huh?


Chilling on the patio chair.

Rizzo was very good at relaxing.

Giving some love to his Christmas presents.


Loving the attention on a warm lap!

OK, so maybe he wasn't thrilled with the lion hat. Sorry Riz.

Getting ready for work at the bank.


And there it is.....the TOOOOONA!

Chatting with his bird friends.

GARRR!!! It's Pirate Rizzo!



This was taken the night before he died. He cuddled up with some warm laundry