the Kee family loved him

We have had a lot going on lately. We went to Ft. Myers last weekend for a visit/ late Christmas with my dad and Linda. There will be pictures and stories soon. They got me a new camera, so I took pictures all weekend long.

Many of you know it had been very cold here the last few weeks. (Cold for Florida, that is) We had consecutive nights in the high teens and low 20's, and the days barely got to the mid fifties. Because of this, our outside cat had become an inside cat. I don't mind having a cat, especially one as sweet and harmless as Max. The main issue is I don't want a litterbox. It is just one more thing to clean, and Lord knows I can barely keep clean what I have. So, Max, being very old, had a few accidents, mostly confined to the tree skirt and the bathroom rug, but nothing that couldn't be washed. I wasn't sweating it. It was really cold, and no sane person, let alone a creaky, stiff, 14-year-old cat, should be sleeping outside. I would put him outside when we weren't home during the day, and he would meow at us if he needed to go out when we were home. I was a little nervous leaving him outside for the weekend, but it was supposed to be warm, so I didn't worry too much. And he was fine. He came meowing around Monday night, and we let him into the house, and he was happy to snooze in the middle of the mayhem. A little while later, I was doing some work on the computer, H & C were playing, and BBM was in the tub, and Patrick came to get me. He had me follow him down to the bedroom in a rather mysterious fashion, and there I saw Max lying on the bathroom floor. He had quietly passed away, amid his wild, bustling family. We put him in a box and buried him in the backyard that night. While Patrick was digging the hole, Ceci asked me where we were going to plant Max. The kids took it very well. When I told them he had died, Ceci immediately asked if we could get a kitten. Patrick and I were (are) both sad. Even though he was old, and even though we kinda saw it coming, it was still sad. He was a good cat. We were lucky to have him.

This was taken a few months after we got him. He is the only cat I ever knew who liked to sleep on his back.

By the way, Ceci picked the title of this post.