Oliver's Big Heart by Bill and Janet Shea

Oliver's Big Heart

by Bill and Janet Shea.........................................

"Congestive Cardiomyopathy...
An ongoing disease process where the walls of the heart chambers dilate to hold a greater volume causing the heart muscles to expand..."

In other words... A big heart...

The first time we saw Oliver, he was sitting in a cage at the Humane Society.
He was bewildered, confused and scared -- the card on the front of the cage said, "Oliver -- Male -- 7 years old -- Reason for surrender: "Don't want anymore"

"Don't want anymore?"
After 7 years, someone decided that they "didn't want him anymore" and got rid of him...

Unloved, unwanted and doomed.
The date on his cage indicated that he was only a day away from...

You see, nobody wants to adopt full grown cats.
They're set in their ways, they're not as much fun as a kitten and sometimes they come with behavior issues...

But not us...
Janet and I visited with Oliver for a bit and there was something there that pulled at us -- and we listened.

Oliver came home with us and our lives would never be the same.
His... or ours...

From the moment he entered our lives, we knew he was special.

Oliver seemed determined to let us know that he was happy with us.
That he was glad that we rescued him and that he was worth being saved...
He loved us... totally and without reservation.

There was always a part of me that wondered if he thought that if he let us know that he loved us all the time, we wouldn't "Don't want anymore" him...

So he showed us he cared...

He opened his big heart...

His happiest moments were cuddled up in Janet's arms. He would come up to her and climb up in her lap and do this "flop" so that he was on his back in her arms. His paw would reach up and touch her face and Janet would rub his belly or scratch his ears and chin... and the whole time, he would stare at her... his eyes never left hers... and the purring was joyous... he was a happy boy...

And I believe that those were some of Janet's happiest moments too.

He had a big heart...

If we were in bed, he HAD to be between us... and would lie down so that he could be touching both of us... usually with his head nestled into Janet's shoulder and his paw touching my shoulder... and he would purr us to sleep...

I wish I could tell you about all the joy he brought us... every day...

I could tell you all about the way he'd snuggle his head under your arm when you held him...

I could tell you about the way he'd wake me up in the morning by butting me in the head until I woke up and then would run into the dining room to wait for me to come sit down with my coffee so he could cuddle up on my lap and go back to sleep...

I could tell you about the way that he would go back and forth between my lap and Janet's lap when we were watching TV...
"You are SUCH a fickle boy" Janet would say and he would purr...

A big heart...

I could tell you about the way he would curl up with me when I was reading and when I'd say "He's a good boy..." he'd look up at me as if he was saying "Yeah... I know... "
And snuggle in a little deeper...

I could tell you how happy he was when Janet would get his brush out and spend some time brushing his coat...
"My big handsome boy" she'd tell him and he'd purr...

I could tell you how he'd sleep on our chairs... curled up in a big ball with his paws over his face... "Ball O'Cat" I'd call him... and he'd purr...

A million things, every day... things that made us grin, things that made us laugh, and things that made us love him as much as he loved us...

Things that we will miss every day now...

Congestive Cardiomyopathy... That's what Oliver had...
A big heart...

Oliver left us on Tuesday.

His big heart gave out suddenly and within hours, he was gone.

And words can't describe how much we miss him...

Over the years, we've had many furry companions and we loved them all (even the one that pooped in my shoes...)

But Oliver was special...

He went so fast that we didn't have time to think about what we were going to do without him...

How empty our home would feel...

How hard it would be to go to sleep without him...