Quick Stats
Life Span: 2009 - 2019 (9 years)
Gotcha Day: 09/21/2009
Breed: American Shorthair
Pattern: Lynx Point
Fur: Cream and brown
Eye Colour: Blue
Temperament: Sweet, easy going, loving, friendly
Nicknames: Arfy, Arf Arf, Arfzilla, Avocado (the good fat), Zilla Thrilla
Namesake: Arthas Menethil from the Warcraft series
Arthas' Backstory
Before my parents' neighbourhood got involved with TNR, there were an abundance of street cats giving birth.
Arthas came from one of those litters and was born in my parents' backyard around June of 2009.
I was immediately smitten with him because I had never seen a feral with such unique colouring!
Before my shift began one day in September, my sister and mother were freaking out because they thought Arfy got hit by my dad weed whacking the yard.
I went to work while my sister and J rushed Arthas to an emergency vet (he purred the entire car ride).
Diagnosis: HE WAS WET.
The fur on his spine was darkened from water, not blood.
Whoops.
The staff were enchanted with the cute kitten and he gave them kisses.
Since he had been to a vet and got some ointment for an eye infection, my parents decided to let me keep him as one of my 22nd birthday presents.
Arthas was bonded to Jaina, his litter mate, so she came inside to live with him the next day.
As soon as the two were old enough for the surgery, we fixed them.
(I'm very passionate about TNR and controlling the animal population, plus to spay or neuter lowers indoor cats reproductive cancer chances.)
Arfy was probably the chillest cat I've ever met.
He didn't hiss at people, other cats, and wasn't prone to biting or scratching.
He also had no fear of strangers.
Arthas liked to be carried around like a baby and would drag his "girlfriends" (various stuffies) to us, meowing with every step.
He had a sauntering walk that was hilarious to behold.
Jaina and Arf would cuddle in a cat bed on top of our mini fridge every day.
Although she was his bonded sister, he loved the entire group of cats who lived at my parents', even the ones who had bad blood with each other.
We had 9 wonderful years together before he threw a blood clot into his saddle and became paralyzed.
This is called a saddle thrombosis and is what can happen with heart disease in cats.
We never knew Arthas had a heart murmur, the vet we attended at that point in time didn't ever mention it.
In fact, when we came in with him paralyzed, they told us to drive to an emergency vet in another city because "they couldn't help him here".
(They totally knew exactly what was wrong with him because cats meow in a very specific way when they have a saddle thrombosis.)
Poor baby had to spend a car ride in agony and could have passed in route to the emergency vet because of those assholes.
When the second vet gave us the diagnosis, I made humane decision to have him euthanized rather than do an experimental treatment that had a large margin of failure.
We loved him too much to let him exist in in pain for our own "comfort" of possibly having him around longer, that's not a life.
I remain grateful to that second team of vet techs and their staff, they gave compassionate end-of-life care that the first vet did not bother to do and didn't instill false hope in us. (They're the team who told us about the thrombosis meow; the vet knew the moment he was wheeled back on the gurney.)
Life Span: 2010 - 2026 (16 years)
Gotcha Day: 10/03/2010
Breed: American Shorthair
Pattern: Tabby
Fur: Grey and brown
Eye Colour: Green
Temperament: Intelligent, loyal, independent
Nicknames: Mama Moo, Mara, Marmar, Moodles, Moo Moo, Moozy, Ringtail, Samoodles, Shovel Mouth, Toothless
Namesake: Justicar Samara from the Mass Effect series
Samara's Backstory
October 3rd is J's birthday so I had asked my boss for the day off; my request was denied.
I was the opening key carrier for that Sunday, so I arrived before 11 and began my work day like usual.
Not too long after the store opened, I had a customer approach me.
"Whose red car is that?", she asked.
Since it was my car, I suspiciously answered "It's mine, what's up?"
"Oh, not much, it's just meowing."
Record scratch.
I left my coworker in charge of the store, which was empty sans this customer and her daughter.
We went outside to where I was parked and yup, my car sure as hell was meowing.
Her daughter was elementary aged, so the customer suggested that she might be able to reach the kitten better.
In hindsight, this was probably a horrible idea, but the girl was successful in extracting the kitten from my car's undercarriage and didn't hurt herself.
She handed it to me.
I thanked them both profusely for their help because I think I would have died if I started my car with a kitten in the engine!
I asked the family if they wanted a kitten, the mother politely declined.
My coworker checked them out while I held the kitten in my lap and called my dad to come pick it up.
At lunch, I went over to J's mom's house.
She had made him chocolate cake, so we talked about my crazy day over dessert.
The cat distribution system said "hey, here's a gift since you didn't get to spend the whole day together."
I always referred to Samara as "J's birthday present."
Samara was the smartest cat I ever met.
She had a long memory and knew phrases to answer to.
Her favourite method of affection was bunting, which we called her "head butts"; it was a running joke that she gave us all brain damage from her strength.
She liked to get into small spaces; we had to rescue her from behind the dryer and the dishwasher the day we brought her home, lol.
If you let her, she probably would have lived in a damn clothing closet.
But of course we didn't, so she liked to lay behind our computer chairs, on our desks, or in the window of the computer room.
Her favourite toys were hand lasers and anything stuffed with cat nip.
She also had her own Build-a-Bear, Barry, who lived on her cat pad and she'd cuddle with him every day.
We dressed him for the seasons and he even had a Las Vegas shirt from our wedding!
The only cat Samara ever really liked was Arthas and she was indifferent toward Mom's cat Illy.
But Jaina, Liara, and Claire?
She was throwing paws ON SIGHT.
Samara had stomatitis, so she had surgery in 2020 to remove all of her teeth besides her two top and bottom canines.
Eventually, 3/4 of the canines fell out on their own, leaving her with a single tooth.
The surgery was successful and gave her quality of life back.
The way she ate after surgery was so funny; we called her "shovel mouth" because of how she'd scoop up her kibble.
She was diagnosed with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in April 2026 and we got a full month with her after diagnosis.
OSCC is an extremely aggressive cancer that is more or less treatment resistant, so we chose to give her palliative care.
Samara hated leaving her safe spaces, so we hired a vet with an in-home euthanasia practice to help her over the rainbow bridge once the tumour grew too large for her comfort.
