Meet Monkey

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All I can say about Monkey is WOW! What a cat! What a best friend! What a funny character! From early on I knew that Monkey was something really special. He started out with this big bursting personality. We named him Monkey because he just looked like a little tiny monkey. Little did we realize that he just didn’t look like a monkey, but he was going to often act like one too.

A family member found him in their backyard. He was really tiny and had been separated from mom. They called us right away since he was going to need a lot of care right now. When kittens are this young they don’t last long out on there own without mom around. He seemed pretty healthy and other than just recently having his eyes opened and being so small he looked good. Of course we had to get him kitten milk and set up his own room separated from all of the other rescues and pets in the household.

We put him in a cat carrier with a small blanket and a small stuffed animal to cuddle with. Monkey required bottle feeding every 2-3 hours and we also had to stimulate him with a damp tissue and our finger to pee and poop. I was working from home and most of the care fell to me since I was right there all day. I did not mind at all and the two of us quickly bonded. As usual I already had special cats: Dexter, Rocko, and Oliver and was not really looking for a new special friend. I had just lost one of my favorite cats Aurora a few months before however, and was still feeling down from that.

We Always Try to Help Every Stray Cat or Kitten

Monkey proved to be very healthy and really got off to a good start. As he got a little bigger we let him roam his room more and more to explore his new digs and get some play and exercise in. Soon he was able to be out of the carrier whenever he wanted and free run of the extra room which doubled as or workout/cat room. Unfortunately, overnight while he was sleeping ants got in the room somehow and swarmed him. My wife had gotten up early for some reason and happened to check on Monkey to see him covered in ants and not very responsive. She yelled at me to get up and she put him under the faucet to get the ants off quickly. We rushed him to the emergency vet very concerned about all the ant bites and his demeanor.

The vet said that his tiny body was being overwhelmed by the venom from all the ant bites. They said there really wasn’t much they could do and offered to euthanize him. It did sound like there was a very slight chance he might pull through, but it was a long shot. We asked if they could give him a shot of steroids and load him up with fluids so we could take him home and do all we could to help him pull through. We just felt he was so young, and had already established himself as a tenacious fighter that he deserved a shot at a life.

It was touch and go for a couple of days, but sure enough he pulled through and shook off the ant venom. Monkey was back to normal in about a week. Without any real push from me he and I became very close very fast. When he got a little bigger we allowed him to get some interaction with some of our more calm, friendly, safer pets. This was under close supervision of course. He just seem to click with just about everybody right off. This process was much faster and easier since he was so tiny. None of the other cats felt he was any kind of threat. Monkey would occasionally be reminded that he was young and a bit of a nuisance when he got hissed at or maybe a gentle swat.

Monkey very quickly was able to join the overall household and come and go as he pleased. He became popular and some of the other cats started hanging out with him. Since I was home all day my new best friend would pretty much go wherever I did. In fact, I had to get him his own chair so he could sit near me while I worked on the computer.

Eventually, Monkey became the leader of the household. Most of the other cats would follow his cue. They would like to hang out with him and be his friend. Monkey really was very friendly, personable, funny, playful, loving, and very affectionate. He did get into mischief and would get scolded at times. Usually he would come right back to me within minutes of being scolded so we could make up and go back to just having fun again. Some of his antics included stealing tissues out of the box to chew up and shred, unroll the toilet paper roll until the entire roll was on the floor, getting too in your face with the dogs, and chasing Lola whenever she would run away from him.

Monkey was all about having fun and enjoying life. He did pick on a couple of the more shy cats, but more in fun than being a bully. Being the family prankster was also a title he earned and relished. He enjoyed teasing and playing with the other cats. Monkey loved to hang and interact with the dogs. He was also very welcoming to strangers that would stop by the house. Most cats will at least hide at first before they dared to come out and greet strangers. Monkey was not like most cats.

I had to take him to the vet once when he was still pretty small. He had gone a couple of days without pooping and his belly was getting quite large and hard. We had never had this happen to a kitten before. The vet said it was just constipation and they were able to get him to go there. They gave us something to mix in his food to help prevent any reoccurrence. While we were waiting in the exam room I noticed he was kneading his cuddle buddy the whole time. This is when a cat takes their paws and pushes down and then closes each of their paws one at a time in a rhythmic fashion. His cuddle buddy was a stuffed terry cloth racoon that he slept with every night. I could tell he really loved it. In fact, he loved it so much as he grew and got more power in his kneading ritual he actually wore it out. Now was our next Monkey emergency! We had to find another terry cloth racoon!

This raccoon was just an extra stuffed animal that had been laying around so we had it for some time. We were pretty sure it was from Walmart. We began running around all over looking at each Walmart looking for this precious racoon. Thank goodness we were able to finally track it down and got him a replacement. Tragedy averted!

Monkey was still pretty young and I knew this racoon was not going to last long as he grew even bigger. My wife had an old terry cloth robe that she was going to get rid of. I put Monkey on the bed and showed him the robe…he LOVED it! Problem solved. From that moment on thhis was Monkey’s robe and it was treated very carefully.

My most enjoyable times with Monkey were watching tv with him in my lap. He usually had at least one if not more cat friends hanging out with us too. I also derived much pleasure from watching him kneading his robe on the bed next to me. His face just had the most relaxed and content look on it every time he did this. Usually he would just knead himself into sleep. I also enjoyed waking up in the morning when Monkey would usually climb back into bed with me to cuddle or at least head butt me several times before he would take off again. One other really super special thing we shared together was Monkey loved me so much that not only did he do his kneading routine on his robe at bed time, but he would also do the exact same thing on my chest almost daily whenever we first sat down in the recliner. He was pretty gentle and purred extremely loud while doing it. I just enjoyed every moment of this.

I never really knew when he would turn ANY item in ANY situation into a game. He really kept us on our toes ready for action at any time. Whenever I got home my first act was to locate Monkey and say hi. If I didn’t do that right away he would usually come find me to say hi.

When Monkey was about 6 1/2 we noticed he was losing weight. After watching him for a couple of weeks and not really noticing any other issues other than the weight loss we decided to take him into the vet. He was so happy to be at the vet (which is not normal for most cats at all), he was purring so loud the vet had trouble listening to his heart and breathing. She said that there was nothing obviously going on and suggested a full panel of bloodwork to see what was going on. Her first thought was some type of metabolism issue or possibly cancer. I was now very worried.

We got the call about the test results call the next day and it was cancer. I was crushed. After some more testing and discussion with the vet we decided there was not really much we could do. I loved him so much that I didn’t want to put him through all the agony of trying cure him. This was a real long shot anyway and it sounded like at best we would just hope for extending his life for a few months. This is not how I wanted him to go out.

We ended up having five glorious, fun filled, loving weeks with Monkey. We could tell he was getting close and we did not want him hanging on suffering for just a few days more. We had a marvelous send off party for him and I took him to the vet the one last time. A few minutes before I had to take him in, he slowly climbed back up on my lap in our chair and kneaded on my chest one last time. It was five minutes worth of love from my very best friend that would have to last me the rest of my life.

We think that the incident with the ants when he was tiny may have caused his body to react in a way that very likely set him up to develop cancer since we also have his brother Mango who is very healthy and did not get bit up by ants. So Monkey was able to dodge death not once .but twice so that he and I could have our most wonderful life together. I miss him everyday and think about all the fun we had together.

I have had wonderful and amazing cats before Monkey and after Monkey, but none have been anything even close to Monkey. I hope you all have the chance to find a Monkey for your life. When you do enjoy every single moment. Treat that special kitty like it’s the most precious thing out there because you just don’t know how long you get. And even when you get 17 years like I did with Dexter it just goes by so fast. Monkey brought me so much love and happiness. He will always have a place in my heart and I hope that maybe someday I will see him again.

Hug your babies and think of Monkey tonight.