R.I.P. Pete

20 years ago an orange cat was born in a bucket.  20 years ago our family was at a local restaurant which had a pet store next door.  When the adults were finishing up a pitcher of beer, the children Molly, Maggie, and our niece Meredith , went to the pet store.   I always told them we would not be bringing anything home because we already had many cats.  The kids came running back to the restaurant to tell us there was a cat I needed to see.  I had all intentions of saying no but when Molly held that orange cat born in a bucket and the way he looked up at her with so much love, I couldn't say no.  I went back to the restaurant to tell Mike I had adopted a cat. 

His name was Sunny but we all decided it should be something different. He had so many different names that first week and we were getting confused.  Molly wanted him to be Marmalade, but that didn't work out we were getting tired of trying to decide on one name. I even considered calling him Bucket but I received a strong NO from the family.  

During this time, I was seeing a lot of artwork around town of a blue cat. I loved this art and the blue cat's name was Pete.  I told the family the orange cat's name will be named after the blue cat Pete. They all agreed. I found out recently that the blue cat is now famous and has his own books and T.V. show.

We had Pete before we had internet and a digital camera. This photo is from a kids polaroid camera.

Pete went to cat heaven March 5th 2022. He was 20 years and 33 days old. Molly was 10 and Maggie was 6 years old when we adopted him.   I think back on that day we brought him home and what would have happened to him if we hadn't  adopted him.  Would he have lived that long? Would he have met so many other cat friends and outlive them like he did?  What a wonderful life he had.  His first 16 years he was an indoor outdoor cat but when we moved to Iowa he was strictly an indoor cat. That probably helped lengthened his life.  We were all heartbroken to hear it was his time. Maggie said Pete was the first cat she ever loved! Molly said he was her cat until she went to college. He then became my cat.  That was true. If he wasn't sleeping, he was either near me vocalizing he needed something, or in my lap. Always.

To help me through this very sad time, I collected every single photo I could find of him.  I found hundreds. I won't share all of them but here are some of my favorites.

The photo below is MY MOST FAVORITE PHOTO because this is how he always looked at me. This is the same look he gave Molly that first day we met him.

R.I.P Pete