Finding Joy in Snarkville

Ok, I promise to be done with this soon — but the more I think about Hobbes, the more I remember random things about this cat — funny things I think I might need to share:

1. Hobbes fell into the toliet in my first apartment twice.  Yup, he’d be running full tilt to hop up on the counter to chat with me while brushing my teeth and he’d use the toliet as a stepping stone — only to find out too late that the lid was up.  This led to one of the two cardinal rules in my house — “The toliet seat lid must be down if you aren’t using it.”
2. As a kitten, Hobbes liked the smell of beer.  I’m not sure if this is bad for a cat or not, but his love for the smell of beer led to the other cardinal rule in my home, “Never leave a beverage unattended.”  (He wasn’t always sure you didn’t have a beer until his face was in your water glass.)
3. He loved to drink the water from under my Christmas tree — when I still had a living tree.
4. His absolute favorite thing was stinky morning breath.  He would love to shove in my mouth when I’d yarn first thing in the morning.  You think morning breath is bad?  Try having a cat nose in your mouth.
5. Prince honestly believed he was afraid of heights.  In his later years he wouldn’t climb like he used to.  Prince met him when he was 3 — and he was already sporting a 16 pound frame.  But as a kitten he’d hang out on top of the fridge.
6. Hobbes loved the idea going outside, but had no idea what he ought to do when out there.  He escaped a few times over the years and never made it further than the steps outside the door.
7. When we got the dog, Hobbes was so offended that he slept on my head for a year.  I’m not kidding on my head.
8. As a kitten, he was an awesome alarm clock.  He used to burrow under my pillow when the alarm went off and push until I was somewhat upright.
9. He hated to ride in the car and was known to meow the WHOLE time the car was moving.
10. He loved vanilla ice cream.
11. He also loved freeze dried shrimp.  He loved these so much that if the package wasn’t locked away, the package would be ingested by a tabby.
12. About 6 years ago he lost a canine tooth (the big hanging down tooth), this meant his upper lip didn’t always cover his lower canine tooth — a look we took to calling “Evil Hobbes”  He also had a scar in his lip from biting his own lip.
13. My parents first introduction to Hobbes was during his early bout with fleas — not only did they think I was nuts for having a cat (expense when I had no pennies) I had a cat with fleas.  It was too much.
14. However, dealing with those fleas, I came to love advantage and borax (dust on carpet and it makes fleas explode — vacuum at will).

All in all he was a very good cat and friend.  But I’ve gone nearly 24 hours without crying — so alas, the sun will still rise.  And I’m counting my extra pennies from one less mouth to feed expensive food and one less butt pooping in the litter box.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.