The Old Man

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I adopted Herbie when he was about 3 months old. The shelters that are staffed and have good funding name the animals, the shelters that are struggling usually assign them numbers like in prison. I was at the shelter with my mom looking for a male kitten. I saw one male kitten that just didn’t really jump out at me, he was cute but we didn’t click. I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to adopt a kitten that day. My mom said “What about this one?” I said “that’s a GIRL” She said “No, it’s a BOY. His name is FOWLER”. I had read it as “Flower” duhhhh. Anyway, I asked if I could ‘interview’ Fowler and we hit it off. He was such a cool little kitten, looking back now I would say he’s a little bit like Jack. Not nearly as wild as Jack, but he had a wild streak in him. When he was little he climbed up in the fireplace and slept on the ledge in the chimney, he emerge covered in soot.

I adopted him and renamed Herbie. He had to be neutered before I could take him home so I had to pick him up the following day. He was tiny but he had a set of lungs on him and he cried the whole way home. It’s always recommended that you keep a kitten in a small room to adjust when you first bring them home, then gradually let them explore. I put Herbie in the bathroom and he HATED it. I swear he has some Siamese in him because the crying and howling was outrageous so I gave in and let him out of the bathroom. They told me to keep him calm and that he shouldn’t be too active since he had stitches. They should have told Herbie that because resting was the last thing he wanted to do. He wandered around the house talking constantly. I knew where he was the whole time because he never shut up. That night I took him to bed with me so he’d shut up. He was in heaven; he purred for what seemed like 10 minutes and then fell asleep, from then on he slept with me every night.

Herbie didn’t like my mom’s cat Arthur. I don’t know if he was territorial or he just didn’t like Arthur. When Bob and I moved in and we brought Herbie and Lucky together I was very worried. I hoped that maybe if they started off in a new place together it would be ok. Much to my surprise and relief it was better than ok, Lucky LOVED Herbie. Herbie hid under the bed for the first two weeks, I actually got worried about him and thought he’d never come out. Lucky spent a lot of time under the bed with Herbie so when Herbie finally did decide to come out and join the family they hung out together all the time. He’s been so good with foster kittens and he loves his brothers and sister.

Herbie is going to be 13 years old this month so we call him the old man. He was very active when he was younger, now not so much. He’s a lot like Hurley these days. His main activities are eating and sleeping. You can set your watch by this cat. He expects breakfast no later than 5 AM, dinner at 4 PM and treats at 7 PM. Sometimes we forget about the treats, or as we call them crunchies. Around 6:45 Herbie stumbles downstairs and assumes his position in the kitchen. If either one of us happens to be in the kitchen he starts crying. He’ll wait patiently until about 6:55, then he starts yowling. He figured out that he can trick us and get double crunchies. He’s a good actor and he acts like he hasn’t gotten crunchies and he has perfected his routine. More than once I handed out crunchies and then he tricked Bob into handing them out a little later on. Now we check with each other before passing them out. Herbie will hang out around the kitchen from 6:45 until about 9 hoping to get extra crunchies. As soon as you set foot in the kitchen during that time he starts yowling and crying. You don’t even want to think about opening the pantry, if you do he alerts all the other cats and you have a swarm of cats around you demanding crunchies.

Herbie is my baby and I cringe when I think about him getting older. I really don’t know what I’m going to do when he goes to heaven. Remember how I said Bob swore under his breath when he found out Herbie was coming to live with us? Well, Herbie is more Bob’s cat than mine now. I don’t know if it’s a male bonding thing or what, but Herbie comes to Bob before he’ll come to me. He loves to sleep on Bob's shoes after he's worn them all day, it's kind of gross but he enjoys it.