End of an Era

The last of my vet school bottle babies is gone now. Guido had a good 20 year run, so I can't complain, but I'll miss him. (The dog will probably not miss him as much — Guido would wake up, seek out the 65# dog, and then yell at him until the dog fled the room.)

Some things Guido will be remembered for:

• He was named Guido because he resembled the mafia enforcer characters in the old movies. As a small kitten, he was enrolled in a behavior study along with his littermates. Every day I had to mark down how roughly the kittens played with each other and with people, and every day all his littermates were in the 1-2 range and Guido was up in the 7-8 range. He was a bit of a legend in the behavior department.
  
  
• Guido got into everything. He saw people as convenient stepping stones so he could jump to a place he couldn't normally reach. He had to help plumbers and electricians do their jobs. Mostly, they thought this was funny.
  
  
• I had to change all the interior doorknobs because he could open anything with a lever. During the house remodel, the contractor went to great lengths to keep him out of the demolished area and it took Guido less than two minutes to get inside.
  
  
• He was the only cat to make it out of the cat porch, and he did it at least three times. Each time he would wander around on the roof, just out of reach as I clung to a ladder trying to make him come down. Before I finally fixed it so he couldn't get up there anymore, I spent 30 minutes trying to coax him to the edge while he rolled around just out of reach, and when I paused to feed the other cats dinner, he strolled in like nothing had ever happened.
  
  
• During his annual exams, he would climb all over Keith (his vet), walking across his shoulders as he contemplated getting into the ceiling tiles, and generally being a complete nuisance while we laughed about it.

Anyhow, he was a great cat and a great pain in the ass and I'll miss him.