A Small Tribute

R.I.P.

Dave Poops-a-Lot

(His actual given name)

Born: June 2001

Died: Sept. 9, 2009

Dave joined our family as a stray in October 2001. I found him with his litter mates, living in a trailer court that was near the sidewalk where I was working as a crossing guard. Dave kept running into the road and I was concerned he would get run over, so I brought him home with the intention of taking him to the shelter.

He ended up staying with us.

*Initially, we thought Dave was a girl and named him Pookie. The vet set us straight and we couldn't come up with a boy's name for him. Our friend, Dave, was visiting from Oregon when we brought him home and after comparing rest-room habits of Dave the man and Dave the cat we realized that the cat needed to share the name.

*The first time we called him by his new name, he meowed in answer. After that, anytime we said his name he would humm and we knew he heard us.

*Dave just wanted to have love and attention. His favorite thing was to sit on someone's lap (usually someone who was allergic or hated cats) and be petted. He purred loud enough to shake pictures off the wall.

*When we brought the dog, Lola home, we trained her to ring a bell when she wanted to go outside. Even though Dave stayed mostly indoors, he liked to sit outside on the deck in the sun and get warm. We didn't train him, but he learned to sit at the door and ring that bell so we could let him out.

*He was food driven. He also rang the bell when his food dish was nearing the bottom. Heaven forbid he had to wait to eat!

Goodbye, Dave. We'll miss you!