I brought Master Tom home in a paper bag… I was only 21 years old & fresh out of the Army, renting a room in a boarding house in Orlando FL… He was the funniest cat I’d ever seen… his front paws had fur about an inch long from between his claws… he was black & white with medium fur length… We moved together 10 times during his life… he travelled with me accross the entire U.S. when I moved back to Montana where I’m from. He made one last move with me to Wyoming when I had to take a job with another company. At the age of 17, his health failed miserably. I didn’t expect him to go down hill so fast and didn’t have time to make the decision to put him down. He found a hiding place under a lower cupboard in the kitchen.

The most heart wrenching thing I ever went through is coming home from work and hearing him thrashing under the cabinet trying to muster the energy to come out and greet me. It is a thought that will haunt me the rest of my life… he died sometime during that same night… I had to pull him out from under the cabinet… I wrapped him in a brand new towel I had and put him in a new suitcase I had recently bought for a trip I was planning. I buried him in a secluded place in the SW Wyoming Desert. I’ve never been back to the grave site. The grief I endured was heart wrenching. Literal sobbing and crying… unbelievable pain. He was a great friend who had the unconditional love you rarely, if ever, find in today’s world. I miss him now and suspect I will miss him my entire life. I will never forget my friend…