Charlie was born on a cold winter day along with his siblings in a larger storage area in my basement. We had rescued his mom, hope, who was a very pregnant stray in need. When we rescued his mom, no shelter would taker her in because they were at capacity. The vets actually suggested that if we could not keep her, to abort the litter. We almost regretfully made that choice out of desperation, but by a miracle we decided to take on the pregnant feral kitty and her kittens all on our own. When Charlie was born, he was the runt of his litter. He almost died during birth because his mom thought he was ill, and did not want to keep him. Fortunately we woke up just in time to find the litter of kittens were born, and to bring Charlie to safety. While he was the runt of the litter, he also was the sweetest. While we planned to adopt out all of the kittens, I just knew I could not let Charlie go, we had such a special bond. I remember when I would feel sick, he would come lay with me to comfort me on the hardest days. He had multiple cat brothers who he lived with and loved with all of his heart. Charlie was always such a unique cat. He would lay in the weirdest positions, find toys out of the strangest objects, and just overall do anything he could to be different. He would always sit with me while I worked from home. He was my companion and best friend. Charlie was accidentally weened off of his mothers milk too early because he was weaker than the rest of the litter, and could never get to his mother as much as the others. We realized that this affected him later on, because he would always lay on me while I slept and suck on my arm or stomach. It sort of sounds silly, but it was very cute and we always jokingly made fun of him for it. He actually did not like normal toys as much as his brothers, but he loved this one small toy ball with little glitter confetti type strings sticking out of it. He would just jolt up from anywhere as soon as he found it, and he would not stop until he lost it under a couch or somewhere else he could not reach. I also remember how he would crawl under the dishwasher behind our cabinets at our old home. Sometimes we would think he is missing just to find his face sticking out from below the cabinets! As a kitten Charlie also love crawling up my body from head to toe with his little nails, starting to realize his true cat potential! One of the best last memories we have of Charlie was when he climbed the Christmas tree for his first Christmas as a grown boy, and he knocked it over destroying a ton of stuff, but more importantly, discovering his love for ornaments. Charlie was around during some of the best moments of my life to date, he was born while I was with my girlfriend and we had just moved in together, we are now getting married next year. I do not want to spend much time talking about Charlie's illness, because it was not at all what defined him, but I will mention it to bring awareness to the disease which I feel he would want to do. At just over 1 years old, Charlies health rapidly declined due to what we later discovered was an extremely rare cat disease called FIP. FIP is a complication from feline coronavirus, that the world still knows very little about. There are no working vaccines or drugs on the market to cure this illness. It is terminal. On January 21, 2020, we made the most difficult choice of our lives to allow Charlie to cross over the rainbow bridge so that he would no longer suffer, and not have to painfully stick out another few months that expensive and painful treatments would add merely weeks to his life. Our goal one day is to setup a foundation in Charlie's honor to raise awareness and funds for FIP cats and FIP research. Charlie was the most beautiful soul, he was more than a beloved cat, he was my son. I think it says a ton about Charlie, about his last few moments on this earth, how he seemed to stare at us in the vet before he crossed the rainbow bridge, and purred in my arms to comfort me. He did not care about himself, I think he knew he was saying goodbye, but he cared about us more than the fact that he was in such a painful environment. It takes such a strong soul, especially as an animal, to handle such a hard goodbye with such strength. A true survivor since birth. The love that I have felt from Charlie has truly altered my life forever, and I feel that it says truly what a special guy he was. Charlie is survived by his brothers Blizzard, Mitchell, and Hemmingway. As far as we know, all of his littermates do not have this disease, and are still thriving as well. While Charlie is no longer here in flesh and blood, his spirit will forever live on in our family and friends, my future children will hear stories about him, and I strive to make sure one day in his honor, we can end FIP for all felines. If you ever have a cat that is seemingly sick, but the vet cannot figure out what is wrong, PLEASE ask for advanced bloodwork to test for FIP. If caught at the very earliest stages, it is still possible to better prolong, or even possibly save the cat. Especially in cats under 3, and who have recently been exposed to new cats from shelters or outdoors, these are the most vulnerable. Charlie, your family loves you, we miss you, and we cannot wait to one day see you again. Not a day goes by where I do not think of you. I love you. RIP Charlie <3.

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