Meet Mr. August!

 Lewis

Age: 15 years

Weight: 8.5 pounds.

Gender: Neutered Male

Demeanor at the vet's office: Nice cat, grumbly, but very cooperative for examination.

Feline Friends: Clark (11 years) and Peabody (16 years)

We often say that Lewis is the best cat we have - he's the friendliest, the healthiest, the most social. But he was the worst kitten we ever had. What a terror! 

Lewis was a stray found by Mari's brothers' family in a Royal Oak park. They knocked on doors, but no one claimed the tabby with Brillo pad fur.  They called to offer us the "cutest kitten ever", as they knew our cat Oliver was in his final weeks. We met the kitty, noted he had fleas, and Mari's brother wanted him out of the house ASAP! Richard expressed disappointment that the cat was "ordinary." "He's just a tabby!"

We couldn't agree on a name, so we called him "Lewis" temporarily as that is Mari's brothers' last name. But, since our kitty Oliver was so ill, we decided it was not fair to bring home a new one, so we took him to E-Cats to put him up for adoption.  We thought if he wasn't adopted by the time Oliver passed, we would go back for him. Dr. Bailey kept him for a few weeks before returning Lewis to us. Lewis became his permanent name because he is smarter than the average cat, and he learned the name super-fast.

Lewis could not believe his luck! He had a home with kitty brother Peabody (Mr. January 2012) and kitty sister Kimba! He had toys, cat trees, and premium food that turned his Brillo pad coat soft & silky. He had the gassiest kitten gas ever! Rich likes to say he's 10 pounds of trouble in a 5 pound sack. He's a cat with tabbitude.

Lewis is now 15 years old, and, while he is the smallest of our cats, he is still the alpha male, much to Clark's disappointment. Some of his favorite things are: sleeping on the sun-porch, sleeping on the deck, sleeping under the Japanese maple, and zooming around the house at top speed while trying to never touch the floor. He loves eating grass, especially the wide-blade variety, and he loves to be carried in the crook of your arm like a baby, while being fed grass. His little paws will grab your arm & hold it close while he chows down on the grass.  He does have high blood pressure. When we see him stretched out in the sunny patch, or curled up in the heated electric cat bed, we realize what an awful burden he must have as alpha male, to cause him to have high blood pressure. He is also expert at pushing Peabody or Clark away from their food, or wherever they are sleeping, and taking the best for himself.

Some of Lewis' more memorable moments include his first Thanksgiving, when he was about 6 months old. He got up on the kitchen counter and pulled and pulled on the wing of the goose that was defrosting in the sink. He had big plans for that goose! Another time we could not figure out what all the pounding and rolling sounds were that woke us up. Somehow, Lewis opened the door to the basement storage, found the box of sweet potatoes from Costco, and, one by one, tried to carry each sweet potato upstairs to the kitchen. He kept dropping them along the way, with sweet potatoes rolling down the stairs back to the basement. He just about emptied that box of potatoes, and we found them all over the kitchen and basement.

Lewis is an occasional hunter - mostly bringing back a little mouse or vole to play with. He doesn't seem to know he's supposed to eat them, like his brother Clark does. He actually seems pretty surprised to have caught anything. He also enjoys chasing laser lights, but not so much anymore as he's entering his senior years. He likes to bump low-hanging Christmas tree ornaments while zooming past.

Most of all, Lewis is a lap cat. He becomes more flexible and limp every year. He presses us into position in bed every night, so he can be sure to get his prime spots - either between Mom's legs, or curled up in Dad's arms. No one can sit down to read or have a cup of coffee without Lewis. Mom works from home, and Lewis helps. He has sent text messages to Mom's co-workers in China by walking across the keyboard. He has also frozen the keyboard, changed the font, disabled the mouse, and any number of other helpful things. But Lewis is Daddy's baby. Richard holds him and cradles him all the time.

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