A Love Story

Gizzy came to us on a sunny day in July 1992. He was a tiny, scrawny, curious stray who crossed a very very busy street and hid in the bushes in our back yard. Mr Karate was only 12 when he and his friend found the cute little black and white kitten that day. He was very hungry, and the two kids fed him hot dogs. Neither of the boys' mothers' would let the kitten in the house overnight.

(Click the pictures to biggify)

The next day the boys went outside to play, and the little kitten was still around. They fed the kitten more hot dogs and played with him outside all day.

Little Mr Karate brought him in the house to show Mom and she said, "We don't need a cat!"

But he brought the kitten down the street to show his grandmother (Mom Lady's Mom). She called Mom and said, "You have to keep this cat. This is a special cat." Little Mr Karate brought the kitten back home and brought him inside. Later, he and Mom went to the grocery store to buy cat food and kitty litter.

The two little boys named the kitten Gizmo, but that didn't even stick for a day before they were calling him Gizzy.

Mom couldn't bring him to the v-e-t for a coupla weeks cause she didn't have any green papers. (It's the same vet, by the way, that he will see Thursday.) Vet looked him over and said he was in good shape, but he had terrible earmites and gave Mom medicine for Gizzy. She had to rub his ears really really hard to get the medicine in.

The earmites went away and for years Gizzy hated people touching his ears. He had HUGE, BIG, ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC BAT EARS, as you can see from the picture Mom found.

Gizzy ate and ate and ate and ate the whole first month he was here. In fact even though he was about 12 weeks old when he was found, he weighed only 4 pounds. He got big real quick. By the time he was 7 months old and had his hoo-ha-ectomy, he weighed 12 pounds. Everybody at the v-e-t fell in love with him because he was so handsome and so friendly and so mellow.

Two days after he came to live here, Mom had to have an operation on her shoulder. She came home all stinky and sick, and stayed in bed two days. Gizzy never left her side except to eat and use the litter box. Once she felt a little better, Gizzy started sleeping on Mr Karate's bed.

Gizzy was Mr Karate's cat. Each day he would sleep on Mr Karate's bed. When Little Mr Karate came home from school, he would run to his room and jump onto his bed. Mr Karate would land on the bed not two inches away from Gizzy. He would make the bed bounce up and down.

What do you think Gizzy did?

Gizzy did absolutely nothing! When the bed would stop bouncing, Gizzy would turn one ear toward Mr Karate, and open one eye, and look at him. He'd look, and look, then he'd close his eye, and pivot his ear back, and continue his nap. When he was ready, he would stretch and purr, and play with Mr Karate. In all the years that Mr Karate did that, he never landed on Gizzy, and Gizzy never jumped away.

Gizzy was part of everything. He would sit next to Mom while she worked on a drawing. He would sit on the kitchen counter and watch as she cooked dinner. He would sit next to Mr Karate as he did his homework. He would purr so loudly you could hear him across the room.Gizzy had a hard time when Mr Karate went away to college, but when Mr Karate would come home to visit, the two of them played. By this time, Gizzy was 10 years old.

Of course before Gizzy had lived here a year, Mom and Mr Karate got Jasmine, who became Mom's cat. The two cats played together, but Gizzy was always Mr Karate's cat.

When Mr Karate finished college, they talked about Mr Karate taking Gizzy when he moved into his own apartment, but they both knew that Gizzy was old and would probably have a real hard time in a new place without anybody around all day long, so they decided that Gizzy would stay here with Mom. Which is really good for me, because when I came to live here, Gizzy became my bestest pal.

I know I am too little to have a Valentine, but he is my special secret Valentine.

I love you Gizzy.