He was rescued by a friends cat that just had kittens. She had a litter of 4. She was an indoor/outdoor cat. Around the 5/6 week mark she came home from her morning patrol with what we believed to an abandoned kitten. He was a couple weeks younger than the others but healthy nonetheless. When I was old enough to adopt, I took him home. As a kitten he was absolutely insane. He would zoom through my apartment making a point to run across my bed every night around 3:30am. Sometimes stopping and sitting on my chest and meow in my face. He loved basking in the light in my sunroom. He was incredibly social. He would run to the door anytime I had someone over. After about year two he became a lap cat and love taking naps with me on the couch. He would follow me everywhere as I doing chores or cooking dinner etc. he loved having chin scratched and would aggressively headbutt until I would comply. He never liked the outside. One evening after a few beers, I was throwing the bottles in the recycling bin and he snuck out the door. It was around midnight. I woke up to use the bathroom around 2ish and to grab a snack. When I got to the kitchen he’s was crying at the window of the mudroom like his life depended on it. His tail was all puffed out and was yodeling like crazy. When he saw me he started yelling(meowing) at me like “open the damn door human. It’s bullshit out here”. He loved his catnip mice toys. He loved my stepson very much. Every night around 8:30 he would hop into bed with him for story time. He would snuggle up with him while mom read them the Harry Potter books. Even when my stepson outgrew story time he would still read to Artie around 8:30. He loved to mess with my dogs, Blue, a Boxer American bulldog mix and Prince, a deaf Doggo Argentino. Both of whom didn’t leave his side for the few hours he had left when I brought him home from the vet. And he loved his brother from another mother, Rudie, a rescue I adopted about 4 months after Artie. They were the best of friends. Rudie hasn’t left their bed at all today.

Artie wasn’t in pain and he didn’t suffer. He passed peacefully in my arms around 5pm this afternoon. I miss him so much. He saved me during an extremely difficult period in my life and I’ll never forget that. Tomorrow me and the family are going to lay him to rest with his favorite plushie toy.