Our Precious Mijo

Mijo is one of the best cats I have ever owned. He is sweet and lovable, often desperate for attention and not afraid to beg for it. He loves people and (when he's in the right mood) will come running to me for some snuggles and cuddles. He also loves to sleep and seemed to pick a different place (the couch, the closet, the pantry shelf, the baby's crib...) every few days to call his own. He loves to sleep with me at night and was by my side almost every night during my pregnancy, snuggling with my belly.

He is also an excellent hunter. Since the moment he figured out how to use the dog door at the house in Del Rio, he allows himself plenty of outdoor time and is eager to bring "treats" home for mommy. In the three years we lived in Del Rio, he brought in countless newts and grasshoppers (both dead and alive). He also brought not just one but TWO (dead) birds at different times, leaving the first, headless bird on my bed (WHILE I WAS SLEEPING IN IT!!) and the second on the floor by the foot of the bed. Then, he brought a live mouse into the house, got distracted, and "misplaced" it. We spent weeks trying to catch the little bugger while he munched away on the food in our pantry. That thing would lick the treats off the mouse trap, so it took a while to outsmart him! Mijo's crowning achievement, though, was the dead rat he brought into the house a few weeks before we moved. That thing was HUGE!!! I'm still impressed by the fact that he brought all these things in through the dog door! He just was determined to show me how much he loved me :) 

Unfortunately, our sweet kitty also battled two major diseases - hemobartonelaphelia (a blood disorder) and leukemia (which we didn't know about until the last time he got sick). He was in and out of the kitty ICU many times throughout the three years we had him. We had the most amazing veterinarian in Del Rio who, along with her staff, loved our sweet kitty as much as we did. He is a fighter and always bounced back, but the hemobartanela took its toll on him. He lost weight, got dehydrated, and very sick each episode he had. We fought hard to keep him well, especially while I was pregnant (I couldn't bear to lose him!), but the hemobartenela is triggered by stress. Sadly, the stress of the move, despite all our efforts to keep him as stress-free as possible, was just too much for him. After moving from Del Rio to Houston, he got really sick and was unable to travel with us to Arkansas. We sent him to the vet, where he tested positive for feline leukemia, along with other blood issues. So, after fighting for so long, Mijo went home to heaven to bless our loved ones who are already there.

I miss him terribly, but I know in my heart that we did everything we could to help him and give him every chance in the world. It breaks my heart to think that he can't come to Florida with us and snuggle with me in bed at night. I don't think I can ever replace a cat like him - he truly is one of a kind.

God bless our sweet kitty Mijo

February 2009 - May 2012