Foto (Photo) Friday is a show and tell of pics from the past week. This week I am dedicating to my cat, Neezer. Sadly, yesterday when we came home from shopping Neezer was in the backyard and not doing well. We had to take the dreaded trip to the vets and then out to B’s cousin to bury him. I thought I would show pics of Neezer from a kitten until the last picture I took of him (which happen to be this week).
Neezer got his name from a friend that I worked with at Kohl’s and then Old Navy. It has been over 15 years and we are still in contact. For some reason she used to call me Neezer. I guess she got if from my name somehow “Stephanie.” I still don’t know how she got Neezer from that but whatever. B and I are horrible at picking names and it takes forever. I think Neezer went for over a month before we finally decided just to call him Neezer. Neezer was my first Christmas present from B in 2001. Basically, Neezer has been there from the beginning. He was definitely our “dog” before we got a dog. Neezer was one of those cats who loved people food and was awesome at playing catch.
- Neezer was such a cute little kitty. Why someone would dump him in a mailbox I will never know. I am so glad they decided to get rid of this cat because he was a great cat. Neezer was a skinny kitty and very playful.
- Neezer grew up to be a beautiful cat. At about 4 months old, we got a new addition to our family and introduced a new puppy to the family. Right away Neezer loved the dog (it didn’t hurt that Pudge was only 3 weeks old), and he basically told Pudge who was boss. Apparently at night he did a little more talking to Pudge and would steal his mother’s milk from inside the kennel Pudge was in. In the second picture you can see how Neezer has put on weight. Well fast forward a few years and after we got Derby and went through the puppy food again for a year. This is what Neezer looked like. At one point I caught him pawing puppy food out of the kennel to eat when Derby was sleeping or not looking. Yes that is a 25 lb cat. No matter what we did he never lost weight. We put him on weight loss food and he topped the scales at 28 lbs. We decided instead of trying to starve the cat we would let him have a happy, fat, short life. At three years old Neezer weighed 28 lbs.
- When we moved to the new house in 2006, Neezer claimed this bathroom sink at his own. He would sleep in that sink for hours/days at a time. He loved it more when you would turn the faucet on him and he could drink and get a little wet. Neezer never had any problems hanging out with Pudge. When Pudge got sick with cancer before S was born Neezer used to spend many days cuddling and sleeping with Pudge. It was like an old friendship was rekindled. Now enters S. Neezer was never sure of S. Many times he would jump up on the couch to sniff and inspect S. He never licked him, stepped on him or slept on him, he just checked him out.
- Neezer has been around for S’s first five years. Once S was big enough Neezer could never escape from S. Neezer was a biter, but for some reason in all the years I think S has only ever gotten bit twice. For all that he has done to the cat, it is amazing. In the first picture S is snuggling with Neezer while PJ is wrestling with Neezer and has his head in her mouth. The second picture is of S squirting Neezer with a squirt toy. We have been giving Neezer baths since he was a kitten so he loves the water. If it’s sprinkling outside you will most likely find the cat outside laying in the rain. In the last picture S and Neezer are just hanging out on the back deck.
- Neezer loved the backyard. This cat has taught all three of the dogs we have had how to go through the dog door. Ever since we got a dog door and Neezer was able to get in the backyard he has never used his litter box since (except for when we had a blizzard). Once he gave up the litterbox he never looked back. Since Neezer was so heavy he couldn’t jump over the fence and get out. Neezer was the best little hunter in the backyard. While I hated to find the dead animals or semi-dead animals in the house there was no denying how good the cat was. S was happy that he got to hold Neezer this past week. That is the one thing he said yesterday, “At least I got one last cuddle.” He sure did and I got a picture to prove it. This last picture is the last picture I got of Neezer. He was in his favorite spot, the backyard, just hanging out. I think it was only appropriate that when we got home we found Neezer outside in the backyard. What a fitting way.
The vet told us Neezer would live a short, fat life if we didn’t get him to lose weight. They said at best we would have 8 years. Well 8 years came and went and Neezer was still going strong. Then the summer after S was born, Neezer started to lose weight (he got down to 19 lbs) and cried incessantly. We thought this is it and took him to the vets. Nope he was diagnosed with diabetes and we had to start insulin if we wanted him to get better. After talking about it we decided to go ahead and give him insulin. Again the vet said either the cat would lose weight and no longer be diabetic or would make it maybe another year if we were lucky. Well another year came and went, I was giving Neezer insulin shots twice a day. A normal cat would get 1-2 units twice a day. Neezer was getting 10-12 units twice a day and his sugar was still off the charts. The vets were amazed we were giving him this much insulin and his sugar was still out of control. They told us this won’t last long. So the fall of 2013 I get pregnant and unfortunately giving Neezer insulin was not a top priority anymore. He would get shots but not regularly. After P was born I was so busy with both kids I barely ever gave him shots. When Neezer wasn’t getting shots the incessant crying started again and begging for water out of the tubs. Last week Neezer even jumped in the bathtub with P when she was taking a bath! Oh yeah, Neezer constantly pukes his food. B and I were talking about that Wednesday and we figured between the two of us, we clean it up at least 1-2 times a day. Well yesterday Neezer puked 5 times in the morning alone. Then he had an accident in the house right in front of us. We turned around and he was peeing on his bed. B said is this the beginning of the end. I said I think so. Well a few hours later when we got home we found Neezer outside and the rest you already know. Neezer is now sleeping next to his best friend Pudge and hopefully they are happily playing together upstairs. For a cat that was only supposed to live 8 years, somehow he managed to live 13 years 5 months.