Here's one of Boris and Guy taking a snooze on the cushy pillows and blankets.  I wonder if Guy was snoring and that's why Boris has his paw on Guy's face.  HA!
	Here's one of Guy and Rocky sleeping.  I've always wanted cats that would curl up together and now I have 'em.  Guy was totally sacked out and didn't care who was sleeping next to him.

Okay, this photo shows more than just Guy, but at least you can see him better than when he's laying down.  Guy was patiently waiting until one of the cats was finished before he started eating. While, Boris - the oinker, decided to cram his head in right away.  Yes, I have big cats.  This photo was taken in our new home in the Seattle area.  It's a fixer-upper and then some. But the cats don't care - they have more room than in our single wide trailer that we used to live in.  Yea!

Here's another photo of Guy eating, with Mandy munching on the delicious cat grass (least they like it).  It also shows the nifty watering bowl that I picked up from the store.  The water trickles out of a spout and Boris absolutely loves to drink from the flowing water.  With 5 cats, this bowl in a life saver as I don't need to keep checking it all the time.  Everyone that has come over thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Guy's coat is much shorter as I had him shaved as it was greasy and hard to keep the mats out of (even with constant brushing).

Guy has lost some weight from the diabetes.  He's been very hard to maintain and it's a real uphill struggle at times.  Anyone who has taken care of a diabetic cat can probably relate.  Guy's snoozing away on one of the two perches that Dirk built for the cats. The steps are spiral and made especially for Guy, who has a hard time getting around, due to a hip that broke years before I knew him and I believe it never got any medical attention.  He's very stiff in his right back leg and it's hard for him to jump, so Dirk made the perches with the steps fairly close together and spiraled, so he'd have an easier time of it.

Well, this is my last photo of Guy.  He loved to snuggle up with people and he absolutely loved to sleep with me at night.  He'd (yes, past tense is correct) get right next to my chest and sleep there all night long.  I'd roll over at night and he'd get up to follow me to the other side.  He had to be by your face, for some reason.  When I'd be reading in bed at night, he'd get up on the bed (via the footlocker next to the bed) and trot right over everything else in the way to get to my left side.  I'd pull up the covers for him and he'd snuggle right in against my side, with his paws and head on my arm.  And purr up a storm!  Such a sweetie!  (Mandy is snuggled up next to me on the other side.  She and Guy would try to get the best snuggle spot as soon as I got into bed.)

On Tuesday, October 26, 2004 I took Guy into the vet's office to be put to sleep.  It was finally time for him to stop trying to live with the diabetes and all of his other problems.  Besides that and his bad hip, his kidneys weren't the greatest, he had asthma, bartonella (Cat Scratch Disease) and a heart murmur.  Plus, old age, since I figure he was at least 14 years old, probably closer to 16.  He lived outdoors for much of his life, until I adopted him while we lived in Spokane (along with his buddy One Eyed Jack).  When they lived outside (until I knew they wouldn't spray inside) they had two small doggie igloos to sleep in as well as a warm place and friendly laps inside the trailer.  Guy was thrilled to become an indoor-only kitty, although he still liked to go outside to lay in the sun, even when he got much sicker.

Guy was very much a people cat and made friends with anyone that came over, including a sheriff's officer we had over one time when we had to report some trespassers on the property in Spokane.  Guy didn't care that the lap came with a pristine uniform, handgun and all sorts of other things.  It was the lap he was looking for.  The officer changed chairs!  HA!  When Guy wanted a lap, nothing stood in his way, including your plate of food (eating on the couch, of course), a book or newspaper or even another cat 3 times his weight and size (especially when he was so sick).  He would always out muscle Boris, if Boris was on your lap before Guy was.  And Boris always lost out to a thin, weaker cat that was more determined than he was in getting that lap.

He would always greet you at the door and meow a bit until you provided him with the lap that he had missed out on for hours on end.  Food came behind laps many times.  When we lived in Spokane and he was still an outdoor kitty (and even when the ex-neighbors owned him) he would follow me up and down the road when I'd go to get the mail (quarter mile appx, each way).  He and Jack would follow or lead me, depending upon their mood.  I just recently found out he also did that with Dirk's dad, who owned the property up to his death.  So, he was always very much a people kitty and wanted attention from them.  I'd go out to get the mail and he'd cross the dirt road, coming over for a visit and would follow me back home.  Even with his bad hip, he would still follow you all over the place.

Guy got great joy out of living with people and he made you feel special by his enthusiasm towards people.  But we finally reached a point where I knew he was so tired of trying to get up on your lap and exist from day to day.  We had so many ups and downs with him over the two years he was a diabetic.  He was treated 3 times for the bartonella, but we could never get it out of his system.  We did get it out of the other cats, but not Guy.  So, that was affecting his health.  He wasn't greeting us at the door any longer.  Nor was he purring when he'd snuggle up to me at night.  I had high hopes earlier this month for him as he had been switched to a new form of PZI insulin and for a while it worked really well.  He was much more alert and eating so much more than before.  (Oh yeah, I also had to give him daily fluids sub-q, since he would get dehydrated easily.)  But, once again he took a backward step (huge step in fact).  If I increased his insulin, he'd overdose and would get close to a coma.  So, I'd give him Karo syrup to bring him back.  And on and on again.  Over the past 1.5 weeks I could tell he was just too tired to keep fighting and I knew it was time to let him go.  I had been through this cycle with him before and it was just getting to be too much for his little body to handle any longer.

It's always the hardest thing for a pet owner to do, but we always know it's the right thing to do in the end.  Whenever I adopt a cat (almost all have been strays) I know that I adopt them for the rest of their lives.  If I'm unable to keep them (this has happened a few times), I always make sure their new owners will treat them the same way I would (in other words, I wanna come back as one of my kitties!).  I do whatever is best for my kitties, regardless of their health problems.  And I always know that most likely I will have to make that final decision about putting them to sleep at some point in their life. And yet I'm still willing to do it, as I always remember how much joy they bring me when they're alive.  That's what keeps me going each time I have to put one of my beloved kitties down. 

Thanks for reading this.  If you knew Guy, you knew what a joy he was to be around.  If you didn't (and even if you did), I'm sure you've known a cat like him at some point in your life, so you can relate.

Take good care of the animals in your life and do the best for them that you can.

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