Frank Kaetterhenry
May 2005-January 22, 2006

Frank did not come home last night. We stayed up until well after 2 am checking the front and back doors for him every few minutes. I even went across the street in my nightgown and slippers in the 26 degree cold because my husband saw a couple of yellow cats over there. They were not Frank. When my son and I were leaving for school I told him I couldn't find Frank. He happened to look in the neighbor's yard, and there was something yellow and furry stretched out there. We were already running late but I just had to know. There was Frank, stretched out as if asleep, just the same way he was on my carpet only yesterday. I touched him, and he was cold. He didn't move. I carried him to my porch so my husband could look him over. He wasn't too messed up, just a little blood around his mouth. My husband thinks he got hit by a car, but not by a tire. Just clipped a little, maybe a head wound. Maybe the driver got out and laid him on the grass, or maybe Frank tried to make it home and just couldn't.

Frank was a good mouser and a good companion to our dog Honey. When we first brought him home as a kitten, Honey raised him as her own, even nursing him. Frank wasn't a cuddler (and I didn't want to spoil him too much as I wanted him to have that killer mouser instinct). Sometimes though he would let you love on him a little. He loved watching water in the bathtub and drinking it out of the toilet. He loved to eat first thing in the morning. And he loved to play with the dog.

I know you're probably thinking that it was just a cat. And he was, all that and more. It will be a long time before I can take a bath without thinking of him perched on the rail of the tub, trying to figure out how close he could get to the water without getting wet. He left pawprints all over my heart as well as my toilet seat.

St. Peter, you're getting the best cat ever. If you have a mouse problem in paradise, Frank will take care of it for you.Just make sure you feed him first thing in the morning, because he can get cranky.

I love you, Frank; and I'll miss you.