Mister Victor

Rescuing Victor

Victor was a rescue kitty, brought to the Austin Humane Society while Cheryl was Executive Director there. He had been picked up off the streets of Victoria, Texas near the Gulf coast, and brought to Austin because the Austin facility was a "no kill" center. However, once the folks at AHS took him in, they discovered that he had Feline Immune Deficiency, (called FIV - kitty Aides), and he could not be adopted out. The techs in the center brought him to Cheryl and asked if she would like to adopt him! If not, he would have to be put to sleep. They knew that we had another FIV cat already, Snowball. Cheryl and I talked about this, took him in for checkups, and in the end, decided to bring him home.

Victor got his name by accident. When they took him in at the Humane Society, they needed to enter a name in the computer. Whoever did that, just filled in the name field with Victor, because he came from Victoria. Everyone loved that name, he was the only Victor most folks who worked with him had ever met.

Victor, AKA "Thug"

Victor was a pudgy little kitten when we got him, As he walked away, he had a kind of swagger in his walk. I thought he looked a bit like Mickie Rooney from all those old movies, at least in his attitude! So we nicknamed him "Thug". It was kind of appropriate, since the first thing he did when joining our family was to try to beat up Snowball and become "top cat"! It did not really work, but he kept trying. He would walk by Snowball, and just reach over and bite him for no apparent reason. Not being mean, exactly, just seeing if he was the boss yet.

Victor on TV

Right after we took him in, the Humane Society had a fund-raising event that was televised on an Austin TV station. One of the local newscasters, Fred Cantu, hosted the event, They wanted to do a live shot with some owners and their new adopted pets, so Cheryl and I decided to put Victor on TV.

Everything went well, except that Victor did not like all the attention. He was pulled from the streets of Victoria and a few days later on camera! This is crazy, folks.

In any case, during the interview, I held Victor, and he was visibly nervous. When Fred reached over to pet him, Victor practically took him out. He let out a screech, and took a swipe at poor Fred. (We have video-tape of the whole encounter!) I managed to keep hold of Victor, and I do believe no blood was drawn, but not for lack of trying on Victor's part. Needless to say, Victor's days on TV were over. I suspect Fred thought twice about interviewing anyone holding a cat as well!

Exfoliating

He and I got along famously. That picture up above was taken while I was recovering from one of my runs with cancer. Victor would jump up and "exfoliate" my face. OMG, did he have a rough tongue! He knew I did not feel well, and was doing his part to make me feel better! In the image above, he was working on my nose. Other times he seemed to want to make sure my eyebrows were hyper clean. I would leave one of those encounters with sore eyebrows. He would purr furiously while doing this.

He never did this with Cheryl. Any time I scratched him, he would bend around to try to lick me. It was like he had to lick something. Once he got started, you were in for a treatment! It was cute!

Food

Like most cats, food was the center of Victor's life. Both Victor and Snowball were front and center any time we had food around. Even if they were hiding somewhere in the house, all we had to do was act like we were headed for the kitchen, and both cats would bolt through the house to help us prepare their meals. They would climb up into chairs and watch while dinner was being made. Victor would jump up on the counter and come over to make sure it was being done right. We could move him off, but he would not take NO for an answer, and he would be back in our faces in a heartbeat. (Remember you cannot train cats, only dogs! Dogs have masters, cats have servants!)

Cheryl was firmly behind Victor in the pecking order in this house. Early in the mornings, Victor would decide it was time for breakfast (like at 5:30am!) He would carefully jump up on the bed, and crawl up behind Cheryl's head and do one of two things to her: either bite her hair (gently), or purr so loudly he woke her up. Cheryl always fell for this, and struggled out of bed to feed the kitties when they decided it was time.

Me, he never bothered. Even when Cheryl was away on a trip, both cats left me alone. They were eager for breakfast when I finally woke up, but Victor did not try to wake me up, just Cheryl.

Take care of the animal, not yourself

As things went downhill over the last few days, one of Cheryl's good friends and mentors told us that he had worked very hard to keep his cat going even when doing so was not going anywhere. In the end, he realized that he was thinking of himself, not his cat in all that he did to try to keep him going. We were reminded of that as we made decisions to help Victor. We got him to the Vet and did what we could to make him comfortable. When it looked like it was cancer, we got him to a specialist to make sure what we were dealing with. We took him to the emergency rooms when he was clearly having to struggle to breathe. When we woke up this morning, both Cheryl and I knew that it was not going to get better, and we had to think of Victor. We could not magically make him better, but we could end his suffering.

Both Cheryl and I held him, and stoked his head as the Vet gave him the final shot. I was looking right in his eyes, and could not see when his little kitty soul left us. But leave us it did.

Cheryl and I had a little memorial service for him at home this evening. Cheryl found some verses from the Bible. We read them as we remembered life with our little guy!

Mister Victor, thank you for being part of our lives. We both treasure the time we got to spend with you. We will remember you for the rest of our lives!