Tyler - April 2004 to June 14, 2006

Today we had the terrible responsibility to bury Tyler. He was hit by a car early this afternoon right near the front corner of our lot. We had been playing with him outside only hours earlier. He and Calvin had been rolling around and having lots of fun with the neighbor cat as well. Megan and I had gone in for a little while and then a very considerate guy came up to our house to tell us he'd found Tyler's body. It was a shock. Pardon my french, but it was a hell of a shock.

After Paco, our first cat had been hit, we decided we weren't going to get another cat. A neighbor's little girl brought over Tyler to us though. She'd found him as a stray and thought that we should have him. Since he was a stray, Tyler really did not like to stay inside. He loved to be outside, running through the yard and garden, rolling in the dirt, and generally living life to its fullest (that of course also included sleeping deeply on summer days outside under any convenient bush or tree that provided shade). We decided we would compromise and that we would let Tyler go outside, but not put in the cat door again and not let him go out at night. We thought (and hoped) that he would then be safe. We were clearly wrong and it's killing us. Calvin is now alone and seems a bit depressed. We showed him Tyler's body before we buried Tyler in the back yard, across from Paco. Calvin is now going to be limited to his current status of being inside unless he is outside with us and on his leash or rope.

We're going to miss Tyler a lot. He was such a dapper little guy. If there was a cat version of James Bond, he could have played the role with ease.

We've put up a small memorial web page for him. Thanks for reading.