Farewell Tyson

My cat Tyson was put to rest today, June 21st. He was almost 11 years old. Born in August 2000 and I took him when he was only 2 weeks old. I still remember I was living with Helen, an old friend from my DeltaSig days and she had a cat too. I wasn't at all a "cat" person until I saw Tyson. His name used to be Milo, but after all the biting, it was clear that a name change was needed. I'll have to find his pictures of when we used to put him in the bath like a little baby and he used to look like a rat when he was wet. I had just started dating Charlie that April and he wasn't too happy about my new pet. I thought it was kind of funny back then because I was like "who are you to tell me I can get a pet...I mean, we've only been dating a few months". And now look, our relationship has outlived little Tyson. Tyson was by no means a little cat though. BIG, HUGE mainecoone. He was black with a few stripes of white here and there.

I remember all the mornings he would scratch my door to be let in and then when I let him in, I tried to go back to bed. He would just get on top of the dresser and start pushing things off - in an effort to wake me up. This is WAY before kids and work, so waking me up at 10 am wasn't a big push for him. Oh the days of sleeping in are so long gone! I didn't like having a litter box out, so I remember I put it under my sink and propped the cabinet door open so he could jump in and out. And he did! It was pretty neat that way. He was so very playful. I would throw balls of aluminum foil across the room and he liked to "fetch" and bring it back to me. It was alot of fun. I remember studying or doing homework and he would come sit right on top of my book!

In 2001 when I moved to Houston for my internship, he moved in to my parents house with me. They grew to love him so much and were more sad to see him go back to College Station than their own daughter! I remember my mom used to call and leave messages on the answering machine for him and he would run to it and just listen to her. My mom thought I was neglecting him - you know, cause I didn't stay at home ALL day with him and such, so they drove up to CS and took him! So since 2002, he had been living with my parents. When I came home to visit the few years after that, he would still run to me when he heard my voice. That changed after a few years and his new parents took over. My parents got another kitten, Angel, and even though they always told me to take Tyson back, they really just wanted to keep him still.

Tyson was always a pretty feisty cat. Every time he got shots, they had to sedate him. He was just hiss and growl at everyone. I remember having to take him in and out of the kennel with one of my old Bonfire sweatshirts so he wouldn't bite me! Dr Hendricks, an Aggie, has been his vet for all these years. A few months ago, Tyson had starting throwing up alot. Then, he stopped eating. They took him to the doc and initially said he had some irritable bowl disease. So they gave him meds, changed his food, etc. Well, it didn't get any better. And also over the last few months, my parents had noticed that he wasn't running around as much or jumping up on the counters or anything too high. So last week, they did an MRI and ultrasound. They found that Tyson had lymphoma all in his stomach and it had spread to his liver already. There wasn't anything they could do to save him. Doc said it could be days or a couple weeks. So my parents took him home over Father's Day weekend for his last days. We are leaving for Disney tomorrow and the doc said it wasn't fair to him, so much pain, to keep him in the kennel while we were gone. So, they had to do it today. So sad.

Sure, his hair got everywhere and he had to have special places to sit in the house. And he was still a biter at times and pretty moody. And Angel and him didn't get along. But still he was part of the family and now he is gone. But not in anymore pain. My parents are definitely having a hard time with parting with Tyson. He became a lapcat after a while and that is what we all wanted in the first place! RIP Tyson Mistry.