I wanted to share a brief story about my cat, who died a little over 5 years ago. His name was Shakespeare. My parents adopted this 6 week old kitten from the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, Long Island, New York, on a Saturday in May 1987. I was working a part time job that day to put myself through college and my parents told me that they had a surprise for me, but would not divulge the surprise until I came home. When I did, lo and behold I noticed a small kitten running to greet me.

I held him and he automatically took to me. He automatically became a member of the family and from that time on, Shakespeare and I became the best of friends, to the point of my considering him my brother, a son to my parents, and a trusted friend to all 3 of us. Shakespeare always spent time with me in my room while I did homework, read, watched TV, did household chores, and even consoled me during rough times, and shared my happiness during happy times. He even shared all of my birthdays, including those of my parents as well. Then, during the summer of 2001, we noticed he was having a problem with his left eye. We brought him to our vet, Oradell Animal Hospital, and a number of doctors as well, who told us that part of his vision is lost, though not blind. However, in late May 2002, we began to notice he was slowly losing weight. Over the course of the next month, he progressively became worse. When we brought him to our vet, it was confirmed that Shakespeare was indeed dying, and it was suspected of being cancer.

My fa ther told me that he would have to be put to sleep so that he would not suffer any longer, since there wasn’t anything the vets or other animal doctors could do. This was in July 2002. I asked my father to please wait until the day after my birthday, July 17th, for this to be done. When July 18th came, my father let me know first before letting my mom. When my mom was told, she cried as I never heard her do so before. My father was equally brought to tears as I was. When we brought Shakespeare to the Vet, we all shared our last moments with him and before he was put to sleep, all 3 of us gave him a hug and a kiss, telling him we loved him. Shakespeare licked us all on the nose, wagging his tale weakly and purring weakly, telling us he loved us in his own way.

Right after he was put to sleep, we all left and cried, knowing we lost a beloved family member. A few days later, we were sent a letter by our vet let us know that the entire Oradell Animal Hospital office was touched by our love for Shakespeare and a donation was made to the Cornell University Veterinary School on behalf of us and the Oradell Animal Hospital in
the name of Shakespeare. To this day we have not forgotten Shakespeare. He will always be in our prayers, thoughts and in our soul, and will always be a member of our family.

As a footnote, 10 months later, on Mothers Day 2003, my father and I adopted 10 week old female kitten from the North Shore Animal League. We gave her the name Daisy, since my mom loves daisies. Happiness has once again come to our home.

Chris from NJ