Last night something happened

So this morning, I woke up to three messages to call home from my parents. Our cat Sega had a stroke and passed away. He was three months away from his ninth birthday.

Sega's life changed when we moved to Switzerland in 2007. Before we moved ourselves, we had to move Sega and his sister Atari in with my parents (thanks so much for adopting them, mom and dad). Earlier in the year, a routine vet visit for Sega to get his teeth cleaned turned into an appointment with the kitty cardiologist which turned into a hefty bill and a couple prescriptions to treat his newly-discovered heart murmur. We worried that a long flight wasn't going to make his heart matters any better so, with heavy hearts of our own, we left Sega and his sister with my parents.

Sega quickly became the favorite cat at my parents house as well - he had the best personality and just loved people. Over this past Christmas, we got to see he and Atari again and we were thrilled to find both cats even fatter, happier and more spoiled than we left them.

So, to celebrate Sega today, we've been eating black and white cake and trading stories of our best Sega memories. I thought I would share a couple of our favorites.

Soon after Mr. K and I met, he went out of town for a few weeks, so I stayed at his place to watch the kitties and keep them company. Right before I left to pick him up from the airport upon his return, I bought a bouquet of tiger lilies and put them in a nice vase on the coffee table. When we got home, the first thing Mr K said was "Sega-man, what happened to your mouth?" I looked at the cat and noticed his muzzle was Cheetos-orange. On the table, the vase held nothing but stems - Sega ate all the flowers off... and promptly barfed them up on the formerly-freshly-cleaned carpet. His muzzle stayed orange for over a week.

Sega had the worst kitty-breath ever. In desperation, I picked up some pricey kitty dental treats. He and Atari were supposed to get one treat each, twice a day. Somehow, Sega figured out how to get them out of the cabinet and then how to rip the foil packet open, after which he ate the entire bag of treats.

Sega loved to sleep under the blankets, right between us. He would curl up against Mr K's belly and roast the two of us with his kitty-heat.

Sega's favorite toy was a little plush Spiderman ball that came as a toy in a Happy Meal. We think initially the appeal was the smell of cheeseburgers permeating the thing, but long after the smell was bound to have worn off, he still gravitated toward that toy. We kept all his toys in a box in the living room and he would actually dig through the box to find his Spiderman.

Share your fun Sega memories in the comments.

We love you and miss you, Sega!