Fatso was born on June 13, 1987, the same day I was getting married. I adopted both Fatso and his "runt" brother Pee Wee. Pee Wee had a bad heart we found out shortly after adopting him and only lived for 2 months after we got him.
Fatso at one year wieghed in at 13 pounds. He wieghed more than our 3 month old son!
Fatso was always by my side. When I was ill he was there to make me feel better. When I was expecting each of my children he would lay down and purr on my belly. His purring helped when our youngest son was born 2 months early. I recorded Fatso purring and played it for him when he was in the NICU and it calmed him down.
On January 19, 1999 a fire swept through my house. I was in the bathroom when the fire alarms went off. Only my youngest son and I were home at the time. I didn't know my son had already gotten out so I was searching for him in the smoke filled house. Fatso kept trying to push me towards the front door, he knew my son had gotten out. When I got close to the front door each time he would back off, if I went back into the smoke he would try to stop me. Finally my son opened the front door and I went out with him while waiting for the fire department to show up. I ended up with smoke inhalation and was taken to the hospital.
It was there that my husband came and told me that Fatso didn't survive the fire. I cried like I had never cried in my life. It was like losing a child, and I'm filled with guilt still for not grabbing him when I saw my son was outside. Our 4 other cats did survive the fire, Denver was found at Fatso side by the fire fighters. The other 3 hid out in the basement and none of them were injured by the smoke or fire.
