Little Things

by Larry Quinn
(Oklahoma City)

Little Things.

We have all heard the Cliché’s:

“It’s the little things that count” or “Good things come in small packages”.

Well, yesterday I lost one of the little things in my life that brought joy and happiness to me for nearly 19 years.

I had to say goodbye to my orange cat, Littleguy.

I’m writing this with a huge hole in my heart left by the absence of my little trusted friend.

I could go on extolling the virtues of Littleguy all day. How bright his eyes were, or how he had the longest Whiskers I had ever seen on a cat!

How he came into this world and Lost his mother when she died giving birth to her litter of kittens. The Woman whom originally owned him worked so hard to save the Litter, but could only keep Littleguy and one sister alive long enough to have a fighting chance.

You see, Littleguy should really have never made it at all. I guess that speaks volumes of the strength of will he had. A will that later in life I was often on the opposite side of, and still have the battle scars to prove it!

My wife, Wendy, and I had just bought our first home, and what home is complete without a cat lounging in the sunbeams that came through our windows each day?

One day, quite by chance, I was over a friend’s house, and noticed that he had just gotten a pair of the smallest kittens I had ever seen! I mean maybe 6 weeks old!

I picked one up and asked why he had gotten two.
He told me that they went to the shelter for a cat, and did not have the heart to break these two littermates up.

He asked if I would like one….

I thought…well….I better call first to find out if Wendy thought it was a god idea…. I never heard her say “YES” so quickly…even faster than when I asked her to marry me!


Thus began an “Interesting” new chapter in our lives:

How exactly does one deal with an animal, that has no idea how to be the proper cat!

Bathing was beyond him. Eating was like watching a Pig Root in the mud!

HE didn’t even know how to Meow!

Truth be told, till the day he had to go away, he never really “Meowed”….he had more of a breathy ‘Meehhhhhhhh”, almost completely silent!

Time went by as it always does, and slowly we noticed that our other cat, Calvin, was Schooling Littleguy on the finer points of becoming a real cat!

I’ve never seen anything like it. Calvin liked Littleguy A LOT!

You may be wondering how “Littleguy” got his name…well…compared to Calvin, who was always a MOOSE of a cat, Littleguy looked ….well….Little!

Whenever we would try and track down the whereabouts of the two of them, either inside the house, or after one of their supervised outdoor romps….Wendy and I would always say…”Have you seen that little guy?

The name Stuck!

A few years ago, Calvin got very sick.
Wendy and I lost a very special Pet , and it was a very difficult time.

Littleguy paced the house for DAYS looking for his buddy. All he did was pace from room to room, checking all the closets for Calvin.

That was when he and I really bonded …..
I would go out of my way to spend extra quality time with him every night. As soon as the lights went out he would come up onto the bed to be pat and entertained. I kept trying to comfort him from his loss of his good buddy Calvin.

Soon, our evening Pat and Purr sessions became a Nightly thing!

Cats only know two things:
Always and Never…..

Pat and Purr was purely an Always thing for us!


In the last 2 weeks, Wendy and I both knew that Littleguy was starting to fail, and our time remaining with him was growing short.

He didn’t want to eat much, slept all the time, and just started to fade.

Yesterday, seeing that my Littleguy was facing his end, I made the hard decision to let him go.

I held him, Wrapped in the softest Blanket we owned. My wife drove us to the emergency Animal center, since it was a Sunday afternoon.

I held him close and stroked his head just the way he liked. I whispered in his ear, over and over, how much he was a “Good Boy”…and how “daddy Loved him so very much”.

He never even squirmed, he was as comfortable as I could make him…..

People tell me that I’m Lucky to have had him all that time…..or that he had a good life…. I know that is supposed to make me feel better…and it will, at some point.

But, right now, I would give anything to have him back, sleeping next to my head on the Pillow.

Its spring, and the Daffodils are flowering.
I know that from now on, whenever I see the Daffodils in bloom, I’m going to think about my Littleguy and remember the greatest cat that I ever knew.


He will be with me forever



My cat’s name was Littleguy, and I will miss him very, very much.



Larry Quinn