The Day Maxx Went To Heaven

Longtime readers will remember when Maxx first came to our house.
Because Maxx came to his original owner, Miss Jean Ann, as a stray, we didn’t know what his actual birthday was. But, we “assigned” May 16, 2012, as his birthday because we estimated his age as eight weeks on his first visit, July 16.
Maxx was the most loyal and devoted cat Brenda and I were ever owned by. He would look up at me with pure adoration in his eyes. Every morning he would be waiting to have his ears scratched. Tomorrow morning is going to be rough when I get up and he’s not on top of the wicker basket waiting for me.
Maxx, like me, was incredibly cold-natured. He would sit inches from my bathroom heater, face-first, letting the BTUs blast him. He loved it.
Because our house is cold (not my choice), Maxx loved to go on our Cedar Deck during sunny spring, summer and fall days. It’s a screened area off our bedroom, jutting into the deck that surrounds our house, made of cedar and appointed with a cedar picnic table and cedar benches. There is a doggy door that allows the cats to go and come as they please. Maxx could get his “fix” of sun rays there while watching the birds, squirrels, boats that traverse the bayou and our dogs when they made their way onto the deck.
The framing of the deck is “2x4s,” cedar boards 1½” by 3½”. To Maxximize his sun absorption, Maxx would stretch out on those 2x4s, his side drooping over some. Not that he was fat, it’s just that 3½” is not much space for even an average-sized cat. And Maxx was, fitting to his name, a big boy.
One day, Brenda suggested that I make some triangles for the northeast and northwest corners of the Cedar Deck to give him a wider, more comfortable place to rest.
You can’t imagine how much he loved those, taking to them immediately, and using them until his last day. I have always been so grateful that Brenda thought of that for him.
Maxx had a place in the yard that was his absolute favorite. Not that he was allowed into the yard.
Maxx, you see, was an escape artist extraordinaire. He could sense an open door from a dead sleep. If I pulled one of my bathroom doors closed, but it didn’t latch, he knew it! While I wasn’t looking he would push the door open and be gone like lightning.
If he caught the front door open, even a millimeter, he would dash out and immediately go under the front deck, where it was almost impossible to retrieve him.
Maxx’s favorite food was butter. Brenda discovered late one night, after I’d gone to bed, that if she got down on her knees at the edge of the deck and offered Maxx butter, he would come out.
For the last forty years we’ve had all of our pets cremated.
But, Maxx’s final resting place is right by the front deck.
It’s also right outside the window of my office, where I write.
I can see his little grave from here.
And the sun will shine on that spot most of the day.