He was one of about four cats in the show window. We picked him because he looked bewildered by all the other kittens playing, and the people staring at him through the window.

He was always a "scaredy cat" and would run and hide at the smallest thing different in his life. He spent his days indoors afraid of the sights and sounds of life in the BIG world outside.

We originally got him for company for our first cat, Penny. Well, Penny did not want a companion other than our small dog which she had tormented for their short time together. She tried to make life miserable for little Jamie by hissing and swatting and growling at him every time he so much as looked at her. The bravest thing he did in his whole life was to call her bluff after about two weeks of this. We were all getting fed up with her tirade by this time anyway. They never did become fast friends, but they did eventually become siblings, even if the rivalry was always there.

In August of 1999 James started showing signs of an unquenchable thirst and ravenous appetite even though he ate constantly. We never could keep enough food in the bowl to satisfy him. I suspected diabetes and we took him to be tested. The vet ran several tests and found his blood glucose level extremely high. He was started on insulin, yet continued to lose weight.

The end of the story is, Jamie never did get better and did not respond to insulin. He hated going to the vet and became very stressed each time he had to have his level checked.He would run and hide even though we tried not to let on in any way that it was time for the vet visit...again. He became quite good at hiding. Once it took me 25 minutes to find his little bum hiding underneath a nightstand.

After watching him deteriorate for several months, no matter what we did for him, we had a decision to make.

You probably know that euthanasia is one of the choices the animal caretaker has to make, and one of the hardest decisions to make. We had a series of blood tests run and x-rays taken and our decision was to have him put to sleep. The prognosis was poor for any sort of recovery. The x-rays showed a deteriorated liver and almost no stomach, probably cancer.

We are having the final blood test samples put through to determine if he had a virus which will affect our other cats, or something else we need to protect our other cats from.

Jamie will always be a part of our heart. Today, October 8, 1999, Jamie has gone into a better place. My husband and I comforted James as he went through his final process of being struck yet again, and thankfully, he went fast and peacefully.

Jamison, our sweet and scared little boy. we love you.