Rest Easy, Norman

Norman, my dad’s cat, recently passed away.

As my mom was declining, she would mention how much she missed having a cat, and the rest of the family agreed that it would be a great comfort for her. I think my dad was hesitant because of the extra care and work that comes with a pet. But ultimately he decided to go for it!

I drove my mom to a cat shelter, where we looked around to see which cat would be a best fit. This was around the spring of 2019. I kept asking my mom which cat she liked most, and she was very non-opinionated about it, and kept saying “I don’t know, you’re the cat person!” We walked around the shelter petting different cats and I tried to see which one she bonded with the most.

Norman was very friendly at the shelter and let us pet him for a while. Him and Mom seemed to gravitate most towards each other. It seemed like a great fit. They told us he was the oldest cat at the shelter. I thought an older cat would be a great fit.

The adjustment was harder than we expected — both for Mom and Norman! I think that Norman was so used to living in a shelter his entire life, that this new home was scary for him. He became much more reclusive and isolated. And Mom was struggling with his mess, the litter box and cat food was really irritating her. At one point I offered to adopt Norman myself but he was too hard to catch.

However, he did warm up eventually. He never fully came out of his shell, but he had a nice and quiet final chapter of his life. My dad got into the routine of feeding him and taking care of him. He had the entire upstairs to himself, taking turns napping between all of the different beds. I think he lived like a king in his last era.

In the past several months, Norman experienced significant weight loss even though he was eating like a wolf. My dad went through many vet visits and medicine trials in order to help but there reached a point where Norman could not go on any longer. Although he was a low-profile cat, I am sure that my dad will miss his company, and it is very sad to lose him. I will really miss him and his robust meows.