You were my favorite I cannot deny.  When we discovered the batch of kitties from a feral mother you were the first one I caught and tamed after Fenix who Foxy the dog found first.  We had much joy raising you from a little kitten as you were very precocious and inquisitive.  While I loved all of the kitties, no doubt Felix was my favorite.

Here Felis was recovering from his infected back paw as you can see from the picture and was a little skinny but improving nicely.

Felix as a kitten used to jump on my shoulders and I would bring him to my place where he would sleep with me right next to my head as I would frequently flip him over so I could rub his belly and turn Felix into a wet noodle where he purred and purred away.  When winter arrived that year it was Felix who would sleep with me every night around my legs.  When I woke up in the morning he would come up to my chest where I would give him a 10 minute pet every morning which I loved.  Vibrations are a healing force and having Felix purr every morning on top of me was a wonderful experience.

But as springtime came Felix became an adult and like all tomcats wanted to roam which he did.  One day I came home and could not find Felix anywhere.  When I went to bed I found him curled up right where I slept.  He must have been in a fight and this is probably where he lost one of his fang tooths so he was in pain.  He stayed in my bed for 2 days straight to get better.

His broken Toe and it really never was usable again. But he adjusted just fine but limped on this for a couple months. By last fall he was big and strong again.

A couple months went by with normal activities but then he came home with a bloodied back paw and he had broken his toe somehow.  I did my best to clean him up but that paw became infected which made him sick so he refused to eat and became very skinny.  I had to take him to the vet in a weakened condition where I got some anti-biotics for him and gave it to him over the next week. He then recovered fairly quickly and started eating again.

Since it was the summertime he was not sleeping with me, but when he started to get better he started too again, but I also had the new batch of philosopher kitties sleeping with me from the spring who were 4 months old and pushed away by mama since she had another batch of kittens to take care of.  He did not like the competition for sure as he was used to having me all by myself. 

Last fall Felix did sleep with me with the philosopher kitties, but sometime this winter he stopped doing that. Socrates out of this group also passed away recently but the rest are doing well. But as all tomcats no doubt since they run free in the woods, some of this crew will start roaming also.

The philosopher kitties have been sleeping with me ever since then and now even the batch born last August are doing the same since my bed is very comfortable.  Thus, Felix would no longer sleep with me and frankly preferred to stay outside if it wasn’t too cold this winter.  And my cats are free to roam which I would not have it any other way.  I would try to get Felix to come sleep with me but he would go sleep someone else if he was inside at night.

When Felix was young he always loved me holding him especially cradling him so I could rub his belly, but in recent times he did not like to be held so much which could be that I held him too much.  He liked me petting him on the ground and would roll around on the ground while getting petted.  Maybe I gave him too much attention or the dynamics with the other cats he was less interested.  I don’t know but I always gave him special attention.  He has recently been going off for days at a time typically 2 or 3 days roaming the neighborhood which is what tomcats will do naturally do.  But when he got hungry he came back to home base.

Here is Felix on the ground last fall as he was recovering from his infection.

While I know and will not stop tomcats from being tomcats, I did not want to see Felix leave obviously.  But it was clear he has become more distant as he has gotten older.  I also know he can be a brut but also very sweet.  And he has gotten into numerous fights with his brother Fiesty probably for control of the home base plus some fights with the Philosopher cats as they are all full grown now and tomcats also so he has been taking longer breaks from home base.

But he was around the whole weekend before last.  After I fed him on Sunday night he ran out and as I tried to pick him up and give him a pet before he left for a while as I figured he was leaving, I could not catch up with him as he kept running away. I gave up trying to get him and watched him go down the main road.  He then stopped and did his usual rolling around on the ground as if to say goodbye before he got up and continued.  I had a very sad feeling that this would be the last time I saw him.  And every day he is gone it is looking like my gut feeling was correct.

You were special Felix and I will miss you!

Felix was a very smart cat and very adventurous. I knew the risks for him but I most surely wanted him free as he could be.