Life without Jazz!

Within days of walking down the aisle seventeen years ago I decided I wanted to start a family. No, I wasn't looking to get pregnant...I wanted a pet, or more specifically a kitten. This sounded like a easy task, but actually it took nearly two months to find just the right type of kitten. I remember driving across the city to look at a new litter of Himalayan kittens and right away fell in love with one of them. I wasn't allowed to take my new pet home for another a few weeks, but did decide during our first meeting that I wanted to call him Jazz.

The cat breeder told me that Jazz was not enough of a name for a kitten of his breeding status. She told me that we needed to think bigger....and hence Classical Jazz was christened.

He also answered to Jazz-a-roo, Jazzers, fella, my boy and pancake face or PF for short.

We brought Jazz home to our condo and quickly became very attached to him.

I loved coming home everyday from work to find him curled up in the fruit bowl on the kitchen table. Hygienic? No, but damn did he look cute!

I thought Jazz was the most beautiful cat in the world. So much so that I entered him in a cat show. Jazz and I spent the weekend with surrounded by crazy cat people (we weren't crazy of course) and after two days of brushing, fluffing and primping Jazz he did come home with a ribbon. (He won 6th place or something) I decided after that weekend that I didn't need a room full of judges to tell me what I already knew...Jazz was the best cat ever!

When we purchased our first home a year later and Jazz had to put up with not only Doug and I, but also my brother and his friend Chris, who both came to live with us for a year and spent most of their time lazing about the couch and getting in Jazz's way.

Most people like having cats because they are so easy to have around and if you want to go away for a few days, you can just leave them enough water and food and they will be fine.

I didn't like to leave Jazz very often, but on the few occasions that I did...I would come home to find Jazz really pissed off at me. He would find a way to get back at me by breaking my valuables. Once he even climbed up on the ledge over my entrance way and edged my beautiful, black wedding present vase off the shelf for me to find broken as soon as I walked in the door.

He would also climb on the counter (again only when I had been away) and paw my drinking glass off the counter and onto the floor trying to break it in front of me.

Knowing Jazz did not like to be left at home I often found responsible cat sitters to take care of Jazz when we had a vacation planned.

Lisa and Eldon offered a few times to take care of Jazz and loved having him around so much...Lisa bought Eldon a cat for his birthday a few years ago. I know Eldon loves Maddy and Maddy has provided a sense of fulfillment to their lives. They both credit Jazz for showing them the joy a pet can bring into a home.

Jazz was an indoor cat, but occasionally liked to venture outdoors for a bit of exploring and adventure. We had just moved into a new home and Jazz wanted to go outside and into the back yard. I was sitting in the kitchen with Jenna who was only about two at the time when we heard a huge thump against the door. The door accidentally closed from the wind, so I ran to the door to open it and saw Jazz racing across the back lawn, chasing the neighbor's German Shepard, tail between it's legs back under the fence and under their deck. For weeks every time someone came to the house Jenna would race up to them and exclaim, "Jazz, door, bad dog, fence, good Jazz!" Obviously this traumatic story needed to be told over and over.

Jazz was such a great cat. Every year we would pack up the van and take Jazz on a six hour car trip to our family cabin in Shuswap. Jazz loved to wander outside and explore the great outdoors, but usually after an hour he was ready to come back inside and curl up in his favorite chair. One night however, Jazz must have snuck past us and was still outside when we all went to bed. I awoke to a loud screeching noise outside my window and jumped up to see what the heck was going on. It was pitch black outside. I couldn't see a thing, but my mother who had also heard the commotion ran to the door and opened it......in came flying Jazz. Fur sticking straight up, hair amiss and looking very shaken. It was then I saw the big,fat raccoon running away from the cabin. Funny, Jazz stopped going outside for a couple of years.

When Doug and I separated four years ago we decided on joint custody. The only way I survived being alone in my house was because I had Jazz to love and comfort me. Until then Jazz usually slept on the couch or on the floor outside my room, but once Doug and the girls were gone, Jazz started sleeping every night on my bed. I loved how he would crawl up on my chest and purr into my face...assuring me all would be well.

Three years ago, Jazz became quite sick just as I was taking possession of my new condo. I was so worried that he wouldn't survive the move and he spent three days in the Fish Creek Pet Hospital. I really needed him to get better and once he did...I swear the next three years were the best of his life.

One night shortly after I moved into the condo...and had been dating Paul for eight months, we came home from an evening out. I went upstairs to brush my teeth and came back downstairs to find Paul sitting on the floor, telling Jazz how much he loved me and how he promised Jazz he would always take care of me. I can't tell you how happy that made me!

Paul and I built and moved into a new home last summer. It was a freezing, cold miserable winter that I thought might never end. When it finally did Paul and I spent numerous weekends landscaping our backyard. Jazz was outside supervising every step of the way. When the lazy lawn was finally in, the patio blocks laid and the flowers planted...Paul carefully walked around the perimeter of the garden stepping carefully on each of the patio blocks outlining the garden. When he reached the end and went to turn around, Paul realized that Jazz followed him each step of the way. We laughed about this, but then were both surprised when the next day and each one following watched Jazz ask to be let out and then watched him gingerly walk down the stair and onto the patio wall where he would walk the circumference of the garden and then walk back inside. Both Paul and I loved to watch Jazz strut his stuff on the garden cat walk!

Two weeks ago Jazz jumped up on his usual spot on the couch and laid down on the heating pad we always set to low for him. I noticed his breathing seemed very heavy. I took him to the vet and was told that Jazz had a lot of fluid in his chest cavity. I don't want to talk to much about Jazz and his illness, but the family decided that after a week of watching Jazz get slower and slower, we agreed we didn't want Jazz to suffer. On Wednesday night we let both Jenna and Sierra spend some alone time with Jazz. Jenna wrote him a letter and then Paul and I took him back to the animal hospital where we stroked and petted Jazz until he went to sleep.

For 17 years Jazz was part of my day to day life. Every person who met Jazz remarked about what a nice cat he was. Hell, he was the best damn cat ever and we are going to miss him every day! For us October 21, 2009 was the day the music died!

We love you Jazz!