Max

Max

Max was born in May, 1978 under Ann Burns’ porch. He came into our lives in July of the same year, a little gray active kitten. He lived with us at our house in Warren Village, Nancy Colby’s A-frame on the Golf Course Road, the condo at the foot of the Sugarbush Access Road, two homes in Waitsfield, at The Madbush Resort, where he became the star attraction for our many guests, and two different homes in North Carolina. That's a lot of adjusting to do and Max was as adjustable as a cat could be.

When Max was young he was very active, perhaps hyperactive. He was nicknamed "Psychokitty". As he grew older he came to be extremely mellow. It’s as if he was two different cats at different stages of his life.

Max loved to stand on pieces of paper that would drop on the floor. It was his particular stupid pet trick and there was talk of putting him on Letterman’s show, but we never did.

In the last few years of what was to be a very, very long life, he became Irene's almost constant companion. He was, by then, an excellent traveler, with his portable litter box and the pillowcase with which Irene camouflaged the cat box when she sneaked him into various military lodging places. Max endured the rigors of travel with style and grace. He even accompanied Irene on her nine hundred mile journey to relocate from Vermont to North Carolina. Max was the hit of the roadside rest areas, with his white, frostbitten ears, walking reasonably well on a leash. Max pretty much went exactly where he wanted and Irene made the pretense of being the master by walking in the same direction. The scene was entertaining for all.

Max took to his new home with his usual phlegmatic grace. We think he loved the warm weather and he definitely thrived on being the only cat in the house.

Max was Max and he knew who was the master of our house. In December of 1995 the veterinarian told us that Max had end stage renal disease and his days were numbered, but no one could say how long he would last. Well, he lasted over 17 months. His last months were lived in the same stylish way as the last ten years. He did wake us up very regularly at about six o’clock, but that only gave Lenny something to grumble about.

Max died early one morning after a brief period of difficult breathing. When he left this world he was lying alongside Irene, the person whom he loved and who loved him.

Died 28 May 1997

We will miss our Max. Life will be duller without him. He had many idiosyncrasies, but his idiosyncrasies fit us. We loved him.

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