Sad Night

It was a very sad night here at the Foshee house. I came home tonight from a holiday party for work to find that my cat had been hit by a car and died. One of my neighbors found him and let us know. I found Bailey, as a kitten, in a tree in Liberty Park at one of my Young Life girl's houses. He had been stuck up in the tree for over 24 hours. For some reason, after 30 minutes of coaxing, he decided to come down and jumped into my arms. I put up an ad in the Birmingham News, but never got any calls on a lost kitten. Bailey (or Pojo as my dad called him, because he was a poor joe of a partner and would always get in the middle of my dad's projects and knock things down) was the enforcer of the neighborhood. The story of his life was marked by constant trips to the vet to treat infections he acquired from fights with neighboring cats. He never lost a fight though. He was 20 lbs of muscle. We tried to put him on a diet one time and he started killing more chipmunks and rodents. You had to give it to him, he still had it being that he was 10 years old and overweight. Though at times he seemed like a menace to society (he attacked our neighbor once, but my grandmother thought she deserved it because she had a buddha statue in her yard) he was my cat. He was protective and seemed to have more dog like qualities than cat. He lived a very privileged life. My dad had set up a partially finished basement room for him, complete with a twin size bed (with a heating pad for the winter), cat artwork, numerous toys, a water purifying fountain, and a TV. Dad made sure that he was able to watch Auburn Football games and "Two a Days." Not kidding. He went to watch fireworks with our family every 4th of July and would jump up on the dashboard to watch them. Needless to say, I was attached. Funny, the past few nights when I came in late, I would spend some time extra time with him because I felt like he needed a little extra loving. I guess something was telling me that his time on this earth was limited. It's funny how hard it is when you lose a pet, the first feeling I had was that I don't want to have another pet again. I guess I just miss my friend. Rest in Peace Bailey Boo...we'll miss you!