Tribute To ROSCO 1986-2008

This is a picture of my big guy, Rosco.
He passed away on January 3, 2008 and I miss him every day. He was 22 years old.

His History
Rosco was born in 1986. We never knew exactly what day so we just used New Years Day as his birthday every year.
Rosco became a part of our family when he was 8 years old. He originally belonged to a lady that my husband worked with. When she found out her children were allergic to cats, she knew she had to find a new home or have him put down. :( That's when he came to live with us.

When Rosco was born he was the runt of the litter. He had to be hand fed by bottle. He grew up to be 16 lbs!!

Rosco had a pretty unique personality. We jokingly always said he had to be at least part dog because of the way he acted. He was definitely king of the house!

He was never selective about what he ate. If you were eating, he was supposed to be eating. His favorite foods were fried chicken, taco pizza, cheese, cheese puffs, potato chips, salmon and MILK. He had to have his milk, every morning.

Every morning he would follow me down the hallway (meowing all the way) to get his fresh milk for the day. You weren't allowed to pit stop at the bathroom either, just because you just got up! All was well if Rosco got his milk.

Rosco never took any crap off of any other animals we brought into the house either. He always let them know right away who was the boss and they were in HIS house.

My daughter had a 135 pound Rottweiler named Bettis (yes, for Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburg Steelers) and he KNEW Rosco was the boss. When Bettis was a puppy, he always wanted to play with Rosco. Nothing doing. Rosco would just give Bettis' nose a good boxing, hiss nastily at him and walk away. Bettis finally got the message.

Many a time I believe Rosco was teasing Bettis. When Bettis would want to go down the hallway to go to bed, Rosco would stretch out in the middle of the hallway. Bettis would have had to step over Rosco to get to his bed. Well, that wasn't happening! He knew he would get a good smacking from Rosco if he tried that! So, poor old Bettis would have to stay up and wait until Rosco decided to move out of the hallway, then Bettis could walk down the hallway to go get some sleep.

In 2003 at the age of 17, Rosco was diagnosed with feline diabetes. He was losing a lot of weight and peeing everywhere he wasn't supposed to. After putting him on special food and learning how to give him an insulin shot twice a day, things improved dramatically.

A lot of people would say if they had to mess around with the insulin shots, they would have had him put down. Not me!! He was my companion and a great little buddy. Because I took the time to take the extra care of him every day, he gave me an additional 5 years of his love. You can't ask for more than that!!

The day he died was one of the hardest days of my life. He was old, his lungs were filling up and he was having a hard time breathing. I gave him a pain pill to help ease his discomfort. When he died, his took his last breath snuggled up in my arms, being petted and told how much I loved him. Of course I cried buckets. I am glad he was able to pass in my arms at home.

Rosco led a long, adventurous, fullfilling life and I miss him every day.

I'm sure he is bossing the other kittys around on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

RIP little buddy.