June 16, 2020

Last Sunday, our cat Mojo crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He lived with us for 18 years. 

Mojo came to us during the summer of 2002. A friend of ours found a large box on her doorstep with this cat in it, two cans of cat food and a note stating that they, his former owners, 'couldn't afford to keep him.' Ellen, our friend who brought him over, already had two cats. Their response to the new addition was a resounding NO, they weren't having it. So she brought him over to us. We let him out in the kitchen as my other two cats came to check him out. They didn't care, so he stayed.

As he got settled into our household, Mojo would follow the other two cats, Milo and Shilo - just like a copy cat. If Shilo slept in a spot, Mojo would take that spot right after him. If Milo went onto other people's houses via the cat door, well, so went Mojo. 

When we moved to Seattle, he rode in the car with me. He didn't like the carrier so I let him out and he found a safe spot under the driver's seat. He would only come out when it was dusk, as if he knew I was going to stop driving for the night. In total, he lived in three states and seven apartments with us. After a while, we understood each other pretty well. We knew he'd be waiting outside the bedroom door at 5:30 am for breakfast. And he could count. If we took a day trip and were gone until the next morning, before we left, we'd feed him breakfast and leave extra food. However, when we got back the next morning and gave him breakfast, we'd still catch hell cuz' apparently,  he'd tell us "Nice try human, I got breakfast and lunch yesterday, but you still owe me dinner."

Mojo was his own cat. Mojo was not keen on having other cats around. So he became the Housepanther. He had a routine and was satisfied being an indoor cat. The decks that we had were enough of the outside world for him to enjoy. Which was fine with us.

Here's my tribute. He will be missed.