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In the winter of 1993, my mom found Comet under her van after her aerobics class. He was a kitten - just barely old enough to be away from his mother. Three feet of snow had just recently fallen. Comet decided to get in the van with my mom while his brother or sister decided to try it out in the snow instead of going with the human. That brother or sister probably made a pretty bad choice.
At the time, I was 12 years old. My sister was 9, and I have a brother that Comet did not meet until his 4th year with us. We could tell our brother, "Everyone here is older than you, even Comet!"
Comet was our second grey tiger-striped cat. Our cat Ajax that looked just like Comet disappeared during the snowstorm. It is possible that Comet was an offspring of Ajax but unlikely because Comet was found so far from our house.
As a young cat, Comet lived a normal, happy life and had at least one litter of kittens. I remember that he would chase a small ball on the end of a string with great enthusiasm. He would leap three or four feet in the air to try to get it.
As Comet got older, he began to disappear for days at a time and would return in a terrible physical state. That is when my mom decided that he should be "fixed". Comet was already very friendly to humans, but getting him fixed kept him out of fights with other cats. When we moved in 1997, Comet came with us to our new house in Wheelersburg and adjusted very well.
Over the years, Comet witnessed many other cats come and go, including "the mama cat"(the mother of his kittens), X-14, Whisk, JJ, Clay, Oreo, and Kix. He was very patient with these younger cats, putting up with a lot of romping and jumping on him before he would finally give a complaining "mrow" and sometimes a swat. Comet was easy for them to get along with. He didn't act aggressively toward a new cat without due provocation as previously mentioned.
Comet also tolerated our canine pets named Precious, Angus, King, Cocoa, Chase, Lady, Mooch, Max, and Ruby. All of them we had long enough eventually came to respect Comet.
Comet ate well as long as he was fed his favorite crunchy food, Deli Cat. When he wanted to eat, he would open the cabinet where his food was stored slightly with his paw and let it slam back. One time, I taught him to reach for his food with his paw instead of his mouth. I balanced a piece of food on the edge of the food jug, and the only way to get it without knocking it back in the jug was to use his paw. He figured it out pretty quickly.
We never kept a litter box for Comet. He would always knock on the window blinds on the back door if he needed to go out. I once commented that Comet was able to control his kidneys better than my uncle.
Anytime someone was about to touch Comet, he would give a warning meow. This was very useful for him to avoid being stepped on in the dark. I once made a game of trying to pet Comet before he gave his warning meow. You had to really catch him by surprise.
When Comet was nine years old, he did something you'd probably expect from a younger cat. After jumping on my lap, he decided to get on my computer desk. Then he spent some time on top of my computer monitor and even leaped over to the chest of drawers for a bit. It seems Comet may have liked puns as much as I do. He also spent quite a bit of time on the scanner, which immediately brought "cat scans" to mind. We got a picture of him there.
In the weeks leading up to Comet's death, he became very eager to be on people's laps. He would jump in my lap over and over again, even when I kept putting him down. He'd jump up on the desk and climb down over the keyboard too.
Even the last week of Comet's life seemed normal. Only the last few days did we suspect something might be wrong with him. Comet left the world with the same people who loved him for his entire life. He was a wonderful pet and will be missed for years to come.
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