Ode to a Nut

A year ago this week we lost our favorite nut: Peanut, our cat. He was the best cat EVER and I still miss him dearly. I figured it was high time to write a proper tribute about my favorite pumpkin sized feline, recording some of the antics and highlights of his years with our family.

Prior to bringing Peanut into our home, we had already had two kitties. A brother-sister duo named, ironically, Peanut and Parfait (in honor of the peanut buster parfait at DQ!) While I was very pregnant with my son, Peanut got sick and died suddenly. Naturally, I didn't handle that well. Cried for days. Original Peanut was an adorable fluffy peanut colored kitty. He was very smart and could even speak and fetch with his favorite toy: a rolled up napkin ball!

Nearly a year after Peanut passed away, friends of ours were looking for a home for their kitty, named - you guessed it - Peanut! My immediate response was to fill that Peanut shaped hole in my heart, so we took in the little nut. He adjusted fairly well, considering the strange environment with another feline in the house. He and Parfait pretty much kept their distance from each other and he attempted to escape on a daily basis. I have never seen a cat so intent on getting outside. If you put your foot in the doorway to stop him, he'd just wrestle it down, flip over and make a run for it. Despite living on a very busy street, I finally gave up and let him become an indoor/outdoor cat. He was extremely well suited to the task and seemed to really enjoy the freedom.

About a year after we adopted Peanut we moved to a more country suburban home with a big yard backing up to some woods. This was heaven for Peanut! He roamed the neighborhood, hung out in the woods, kept many wild animals away from our house and everytime I would look out the window when the kids were on the playground - there he would be standing guard. Anytime we headed out back to play we could just call his name and he would come bounding out of the bushes to greet us. Considering he had grown immensely over the years, to a whopping 22 pounds at one point, his "bounding" was quite humorous! Peanut was the quintessential fat cat. He was basically Garfield in real life. When I saw those movies I couldn't help but laugh extra loudly at the fat cat maneuvers and falls which was art imitating the life of my cat!

Peanut became a household name in our neighborhood - everybody knew and loved him. For awhile there he would come home in the summers smelling like perfume! We never did figure out with whom he was having a regular rendezvous. One time I opened the front door to let him out, I heard laughter coming from our neighbor's yard and then "Hey Peanut, come on over!" Yup, our cat had just been invited to the party!

The neighbors on our other side loved Peanut like their own cat. They had a little bed for him in their garage and sometimes he'd have sleepovers at their house. They would even let him inside their house to hang out. When Peanut passed away they came over to the grave to pay their respects and we all shared our favorite stories about our shared pet!Some of Peanut's favorite things were:

FOOD

BEGGING FOR FOODLOUNGING NEAR HIS FOODPAPER BAGS

BOXES

LOUNGING IN GENERAL

Over a year later and I still pull into the driveway missing how the big nut would run to greet me as I got out of the car. I miss his addiction to feet - he had quite a foot fetish and loved to rub his face all over anyone's feet if they'd let him. If you didn't allow him to do so, you risked getting nipped in the ankle! In general we all greatly miss the cool cat whom we lovingly remember as being a "really good dog!"