remembering Marsh...

As we take the steps to say goodbye, I am flooded by memories of this wonderful, mischevious, active, stinker cat.

I remember the day we picked him out at the Petsmart. DS was leaning toward another cat, but I had had an orange cat when I was younger...and I really wanted ds to have one. (even the vet talked about the orange cat attitude). He was sleeping at the time, but once we got him in the car, he showed that personality. The store had given us a cardboard box to transport him in, and he kept 'popping' his head out of the top, like a 'jack in the box'.

As soon as we got home, he took over. We had 2 other cats..my Kitty (who lived to be 19) and dd's Cassandra. Now, Kitty did not like Cassandra. I figured it was because he was so old, he just was not going to get used to another cat. But Marshall, came in with his bouncy step and alert tail and just made friends. He was friends with Cassandra, at first Kitty only tolerated him, but by the last years of his life..he was friends. And of course, it was Marsh who took Percy under his wing. Up till the last illness, when they had to be separated, they were buddies.











Marsh was so naughty, ds had bunk beds, and at the ceiling line, I had a wallpaper border...well, not for long. Somehow Marsh discovered that border and shredded sections of it. He also used that bunk bed as a 'catapult'...when ds had a friend spend the night. His friend was sleeping on the floor, and Marsh would leap onto his back/tummy from that top bunk.

Marsh was also our official 'cat burgler'. We were playing a game, I think it was Mall Madness. We had to step away from the game, only to find that dd's money was gone. Now, she was keeping it 'rubberbanded' together...well, it was Marsh. He also had a propensity for stealing game pieces right off the board.


After ds left for the Corps, Marsh would call out at night. His meow sounded eerily like he was calling "J!! J!!". But he and dh quickly became buddies. Where dh would feed Marsh at the table. And gave Marsh a bad habit that lasted to the end.








Marsh was also dh's alarm clock. He would wake dh up between 5am and 6am. He would get up on the bed, and pat his face, for a while....then he would take a single claw, and poke dh in the neck. This was dh's story for years, which I did not believe, until one morning in the trailer. I was sleeping on dh's side of the bed.

(MY CAPS KEY IS STUCK)
ANYWAYS, THIS MORNING WAS VERY QUIET AS I SCRUB'D THE ROOM HE WAS IN FOR HIS FINAL DAYS. (AND NOW MY KEY FOR THE 2ND LETTER IN THE ALPHA IS ALSO STUCK)

MISS YOU, MARSH!!