Kiowa was a wonderful companion. He was a very sweet cat, and he was in my life since before my birth. My mother told me of the games he would play with the dog at the time. The dog's name was Buddy. A rather generic name, but that's what he went by. He was a stray lab mix who honestly believed that Kiowa was his toy. They would chase one another around the house playing cops and robbers. She told me it was quite comical to watch the cat outsmart the dog and jump onto the counter in the kitchen and watch the dog slide on the linoleum and into a wall. I wish I could have enjoyed that, but I wasn't even born yet!

After I was born, the dog became jealous and piddled on my mother's bed. She decided to get rid of him. I'm not sure if the cat was sad, but I guess he may have, losing his best friend. I don't know exactly when the other cat Sarah came into the picture, but she was older than him and when he tried to play with her, she would smack him in the head. She was too old for his games. Sadly she had a tumor and we made the decision to have her put down. I think Kiowa missed her a lot. We had only him for many years, and when he was 15 we brought 2 younger male cats into the picture. They were brothers, and it took Kiowa a while to finally accept it. He was the only pet for so long I guess he felt pushed away.

He unfortunately spent most of his life in the basement because he piddled on the floor upstairs too much. But the basement is like a family room so he wasn't really a prisoner. But I felt bad that he wasn't allowed upstairs and the other cats were when they did the same thing!

But I do remember going into the basement to play video games and he would paw at me to let him on my lap so I could try and play a game one handed and pet him with the other. It was good times. Even if my legs often fell asleep with him sitting on them.

At the ripe old age of 17 he began to die. It started with him sitting in a corner a lot and refusing to eat. We had just brought in a female cat that we named Binky. We had her for no more than 3 weeks before we made that heart retching decision to take him to the vet. I had prayed that something could be done to save him, but sadly we hadn't had the money to really have tests done to find out what was really wrong with him. The vet said he wouldn't have made it much longer anyway so we put him down. I don't think I cried so much in my life at the time. We had him put down on Saturday, September 12, 2009, and he was buried the following day. I will never forget that cat. Now the basement seems so empty without that sweetheart coming to rub up to my leg and cry for attention... I wish I could hold him and pet him one more time.