In Memory of Hobie

Hobie was our skinny little cat who ruled the house. Both dogs knew who was boss. He was a stray picked up off our street corner when I was walking home from class one evening in May 2005. At the time he was the skinniest cat we had ever seen, and while he gained a LOT of weight those first couple of months, he never really filled out to where he should be, despite the buffet of both dry and canned food that he was always offered. What he lacked in size, he made up for in personality (and vet bills). Shortly after we took him in, he went to the vet where his age was determined as 'pretty old' and many of his rotting and infected teeth were removed. Following that he was much more comfortable and had a great couple of years in the retirement home that we provided for him. He was extremely talkative, and would great us each morning or whenever we got home with a series of loud meows, and when he knew it was time for his canned food he would meow constantly until he got it. One night my husband proclaimed 'you can't have your wet food until you meow 33 times' and it didn't take long until he was happily eating away. He was also a very affectionate guy who loved to be pet, learned to beg for scraps while I was cooking, and spent many hours snoozing away the Vermont winters on his heated cat bed. We had planned to bring him with the rest of our family to Portugal, but 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave he collapsed in a seizure and died at the vet within an hour. Our vet believes it could have been a stroke, but we will never know. So he stayed at his home in Burlington, with his ashes scattered in his favorite haunts around our house and on the corner where we found him. He is missed.