In Memory of Jasper 1992-2007


This week was bittersweet. In all the excitement of getting a new motorcycle, we had to put down our dear 15 year old cat, Jasper. It’s been a tough week.

Jasper was a friend to everyone he met, even other animals. He was happy go lucky, loved to hunt and must have scaled down literally hundreds of the rat/mouse/squirrel population in his lifetime. They were all rodents to him.

I once sat Jasper on my Suzuki seat, and he seemed to enjoy it. I wish I had taken a picture…..

We got Jasper from a lady in Berryessa, CA by answering an ad in the paper. The lady frequently rescued cats from the dumpster behind her local Safeway. She fed and box trained them, then one by one gave them to good homes. We were blessed to have found Jasper, as he had the best personality of any cat I’ve ever had. He was about 6 months old at the time. My husband was the first human he came to after we got him home. It was an immediate bond which only got stronger between them.

We moved Jasper to the Seattle area in 1993 when our work transferred us here. Once in the winter of 1996 he disappeared for 21 days during our worst winter snowstorm yet. We will never know, but we think he was trapped somewhere. After two weeks we were so distraught, we went to a shelter and adopted our cat ‘Sam’ who was living in a cage. Less than a week later, Jasper appeared. He was skinny, had a scabby nose, and was very hungry and thirsty. He never left for more than a day or two again.

Jasper will be missed greatly, as he was always on Dave if he was sitting down. If Dave was working at the computer, Jasper was always resting across the area between his lap and the keyboard. Anywhere we went in the house, Jasper would follow. He gave us an enormous amount of love, and we returned it.

So life won’t be the same without our best friend Jasper. He’ll be greatly missed by all whose lives he touched.