Ninja! Kitty (Potter Cole) began his next great adventure on Tuesday, April 28, 2015.
He came into our life in July of 2005, such an anticipated member of the family that I put aside the fresh-from-the-UK Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to accept the tiny creature in the palm of my hand (courtesy of my fellow City Year corps member, Ms. Kira Dale). The tiny-bodied, bat-eared, full spirited sprite of a cat earned his name after demonstrating a fondness for leaping at a passing human or dog from dark corners and his startling leaping agility.
He quickly became best friends with the golden/pyrenees mix,Thalia, who broke his heart when her one maternal instinct was to keep him away from her puppies. While he later accepted her and the remaining pup as things he had to live with, he showed no remorse when they found new homes.
Ninja grew into a mini-panther, which may have been why he welcomed the smaller-than-him Thrall into the household. He would not shy away from playing when he felt like it and would give Thrall a good punch in the face when he was done.
Ninja loved empty boxes, paper (the more important it was, the better it was to lay across), the textured concrete of our front porch, a few neighbors, and increasingly showed interest in other humans as time went by. While he showed no interest in toys early on, he enjoyed receiving a stocking full of crocheted catnip toys on his final Christmas and would occasionally be found pulling them out to play on his own.
Ninja must have known that this life was coming to a close, because he made sure he got and gave lots of love in his final months.
We greatly appreciate the wonderful efforts of Dr. Gabbard and the entire staff of Animal Care Veterinary Center who did everything they could to prevent the kidney failure and let us be there to help make his final moments as peaceful and loving as possible.
Ninja is survived by his human parents, Bob and Amanda, and his canine brother, Thrall.