Ralphie

We lost our beloved cat, Ralphie to a coyote. He was such a great cat.  He was so patient with the boys, he allowed them to climb, lay on, pet, play with him and he never even let out a single meow of annoyance.  I actually think he really enjoyed it.  Often, I would peel one of the kids off of him and tell them not to "hurt" Ralphie that way, and Ralphie would be purring away.  He loved attention.  Zac and I would get comments about how sweet a cat he was and how funny it was that when anyone would pet and adore him, he would drool and purr away.  The past year or two, Ralphie found a love for hunting.  One night, Ralphie was accidentally let outside.  He took the opportunity of freedom and was gone for two days.  Zac and I were so upset, but he trotted home a little matted and perfectly content.  He had found his new passion...hunting.  Once we moved to the new house, it was impossible to keep him as a strictly indoors cat.  He would meow at us for HOURS unless we let him out.  So, we installed a nice cat/dog door on our garage door so that he could freely come in and out of the house.  Ralphie was so pleased in fact, that he would bring us daily offerings of his kill.  It was discusting, but he was proud.   We are happy that Ralphie was a happy cat who was loved and was able to live his life the way he wanted to.  We will always have great memories that he has given us.  Zac and I keep reminding eachother of funny things he used to do and that bring a smile to our face.  We have been struggling with how to tell Luke (since Ryan isn't old enough to understand or notice), when he does finally ask where he is. That is going to be difficult.