In Memoriam: To My Sweet, Soulful Petie

A year ago today I had to do something I’d never done before in my life. I made the decision that it was time to say goodby to my sweet, beloved, painfully shy, carb-addicted, soulful, chunky monkey Petie (aka Petie Bear, Petie Pita Pants, Petie Pantaloon…).

I’ve been writing and rewriting this post for the last hour through the tears. Tears I shed for months leading up to the day I had to say goodbye to him, but were frighteningly absent on that day and the days to follow.

I have some thoughts on saying goodbye to a furry family member. What it was like for me having to make that decision for the first time in my life, but I don’t want to go there today. That will be a post for another time.

Today I want to share some of the things that made Petie who he was. The things I miss about him. Apologies for any typos and I know there’s much I will wish I had included, but it’s late and I want to have something posted to honor him. So I’m hoping “something is better than nothing” will apply in this instance.

How I could carry him like a toddler (guess I can’t complain about the toddler locks then – read on for context)

“If you don’t hear from me, Petie has killed and eaten me. That,or the neighbors have.”* Just this evening my cat sitter Jordana, who had a very special bond with Petie, sent me this text. Apparently it’s a text I sent her back in December of 2014.

Petie was a food addict and the reason that, as a single woman without 2-legged children, I have toddler locks on my refrigerator and cabinets (over the course of a few evenings he managed to break the seal on my refrigerator looking for the cat food I thought I’d so cleverly hidden there – don’t worry, he was NOT starving as is hopefully obviously in the photos!).

I’ll never forget the day I caught him atop of the refrigerator (how he catapulted his 20lb frame up there I’ll never know), the door of the cabinet above the stove open. Mind you, the door opened towards him, yet he’d managed to squeeze under it and had proceeded to start knocking down cans of cat food and cat treats. The moment he realized he was busted he leapt, flying into the air, landing and scampering away!

One of my amazing Facebook followers found the photo I had posted of this exact moment! See! Proof!