DeeJay was born in April 1
988.
Brian, my husband, use to feed his dad and mom at his workshop. Then Brian
had to move to another location. He wanted to bring DeeJay's dad home,
but one of the other tenants in the complex said he would take care of
all of the kitties. Kitty (DeeJay's daddy) was a very friendly cat, but
Deej's mom wasn't. She would only come in when there were no people around.
She made herself a nest and had two kittens. As
Brian was in the process of moving his equipment to another shop, he worried
that mama cat would be unable to take care of the kittens. At one point,
during his move, DeeJay started to meow and Brian meowed back. DeeJay followed
the sound of Brian's voice. He fell from the mezzanine onto the edge of
a broken mirror, then eight feet onto a cement floor. DeeJay was only around
four weeks old at this time. He has dislocated his back leg in the fall.
Brian popped it back into place and immediately called me to come get the
kittens.
DeeJay and Annie were our first babies. It was
fun to watch them play together. It was nice watching them mature. DeeJay
turned into a real daddy's boy, choosing Brian's lap over any other place
in the house.
To tell a story about the strength of a cat, one
time DeeJay was laying on his daddy's chest. He saw Lola above his daddy's
head and got jealous. When Brian told him to get down, because he was growling,
DeeJay hit Brian in the face, on the eye. Brian had a nasty black eye that
took three weeks to completely disappear.
DeeJay is another of our very affectionate kitties.
He does get jealous. And he can be quite grouchy at times.
Another fine personality in our menagerie.
UPDATE: January 13, 2006
DeeJay was euthanized today due to renal failure. He had been diagnosed with chronic renal failure in the summer of 2002. With supportive care, we were able to keep him going for a few more years. He'd been going downhill since the megacolon at the end of 1999, when he had a sub-total colectomy. He was as skinny as a rail, but he took his daily fluids well and he never really lost his appetite until the last couple of days. That's when I knew he was ready to go. I took him into the vet, the vet looked him over and told me that it was obvious that DeeJay's kidneys were finally shutting down.
