Dexter

I’ve never been much of a cat person. My mom and I had a cat when I was a boy, but it scratched me pretty often, and so I was afraid of the cat and I didn’t like it. So, of course, I transferred this dislike of this one particular cat to every cat on earth. I went along disliking cats, and not wanting to change my mind. Things were just fine.

But then I met Dexter.

Dexter was Jen’s cat, and had been with her since she lived in California. He was grey and white, and his front pars had been de clawed. When I first met Jen and we were at her house, Dexter was pretty shy around me, trying to see what I was up to with his buddy. After about a week passed of me seeing Jen regularly, Dexter (I would like to think) felt better about me and my intentions and started warming up to me. This, in turn, prompted me warming up to him.

At first, I could pet him for a second, but he would never get in my lap, or let me pet his belly. Only Jen could have those privileges. As time went on and he got more and more comfortable with me, he started letting me pet him, and he would lay next to me as I read or watched TV.

Probably the most important event to me was the night he crawled up in my lap and went to sleep while I petted him. He purred until he fell asleep – and I didn’t want to move and wake him up. I knew Dexter and I had a special relationship.

He really became my buddy – when I was home from school or whenever, he would keep me company. He made Jen and I laugh so hard sometimes, especially when he went all crazy and ran around the house. He really was a part of our family.

Of course, I didn’t know how much of a bond I had with that kitty until we had to put him to sleep because he had very bad liver cancer. We did the best we could for him, and let him know that we loved him, but we had to let him go. It still makes us cry sometimes. But, on our evening walks we see lots of kitties, and they all let us pet them. I’d like to think that somehow Dexter told them about us, and he wants us to know that he knows we did what was best for him, and that he loved us.

I’ll close with telling you all this came about because Jen and I watched this amusing and lovely video on YouTube a few weeks back, so I have included the video below.

- Jason Dean