It was the year 200 I was in CDT, my school at the time, and the principal came to the room I was in and said that my mother had called and needed to talk to me.  I was curious and nervous walking down to the office to talk to my mom, I could not imagine what in the world could be important enough for her to have to call me in the middle of school.  I picked up the phone "ash, do you want a cat?" my mom asked me that and I was kind of stunned, I couldn’t believe that she pulled me out of class for such a random un-important question.  However, to this day, I am glad she did.  I told her that I did and she said that she had found a good one and that she was going to adopt him.  His name was Red when we adopted him but the minuet I saw him I knew that name did not fit him.  He was still very young, so we were able to change it without a problem.  That day when I got home he was hiding under my mothers bed.  I pulled him out and gave him his new name and knew he just wanted to be left alone.  He was scared and confused.  I let go of him and didn’t see him for another day.  I knew the poor thing hadn't eaten so I went back and got him and spoon fed him baby food to get him to eat and dipped my finger into his water and put it to his lips to get him to drink.  I did this every night for about a week and he soon started to come out on his on.  For the next week he would only come so far and get scared and run back.  Over the next few days he began exploring the whole house and after about 2 weeks he was walking around like he owned the place... truly, he did!!  We would end up celebrating his first birthday at my grams house with her kitty Shadow.  Years later... One day we all woke up and notice that a normally verbal cat was being rather quiet.  We tried the things that normally got him to meow and he tried to but nothing came out.  We waited for a day or two to see if it would return.  Nothing happened so we called a vet and they said that it was nothing to worry about.  So we didn’t worry.  Then about a month or two later he began having problems breathing.  I got very worried about him and spent days on end with no sleep looking on the internet for possible causes of this.  Some sites said it could be caused by the litter, so we changed it, dirty flooring, so I stayed home and scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees with a water/ bleach/ spick and span mix, and smoking, so we opened all the windows and had fans all over the place (none of us smoke but the neighbors do) none of this made a difference and his condition only got worse.  We could not afford a straight vet bill so I called all of the veterinary places all around Pennsylvania, and Ohio and NO ONE would take payments.  Well I thought this was bullshit, and I was rather desperate so I contacted our local news station who has a lady who deals with consumer complaints.  I talked to her about Jacob and how the veterinary places treated me and she ended up calling the vet that lives about 10 minuets from my house.  He called me back a few minuets later and said that he would be able to work something out with me (this was the same guys that had turned me away a few days ago) Jacob had an appointment the next day.  We took him up and got him all checked out and they had us put him on a pill.  It worked for  while but then the breathing problems came back and he was no longer able to eat solid cat food.  We took him back to the vet and they began giving him a steroid shot.  The first shot was great, it lasted the whole month like it was supposed to, but after that month the breathing problems returned again, we kept taking him for these shots because they worked.  However, he became jumpy, and mean but we still loved him too much to care that he got a little mean.  Soon we had to take him every other week for this shot and soon the vet had said that they cant keep giving him this shot or it will end up killing him.  I was on my own for this vet appointment and asked the vet what our choices were.  He said that they have a shot of last resort that they could give him, but that he would need to be completely calm first so they gave him a shot to calm down and he clung to me for dear life while they gave him the other shot, I felt so bad for him just laying there being so good and in so much pain, he didn’t deserve any of this.  So I asked the vet what our choices were if this didn’t work and he said we could put him to sleep or wait and see what happened but that more then likely if we didn’t put him to sleep he would suffocate to death.  By this point I was back to spoon feeding him with baby food and putting his water to his lips the vet gave him until the morning to get better or we would have to have him put to sleep.  Now I do not believe in this, but I took one look at Jacob and saw him suffering and didn’t want his life to end with this suffering so I knew it was the right thing to do for his sake.  So we waited a while for him to get better the next morning but he didn’t so we ended up taking him to the vet.  We walked into the room and the doctor asked if we wanted to stay with him and neither of could have watched it so we didn’t, we stayed in the room and cried a bit then we left.  The ride home was hard, then walking into the house with out him was even harder.  Then having to tell my grandmother what happened was the worst.  I spent the rest of that night crying and stunned.  It is very hard to lose a pet this close to you and I did not make it through writing this without having to stop a few times to stop crying and recollect myself.  Losing a pet will never be easy, and if your reading this and know what I went through or would just like a shoulder to cry on for yourself, just leave me an email or im and talk. 

We will always love and miss you Jacob.  You were our life, and will never be forgotten.