R.I.P. Smelly cat

I have sad news to report. On Tuesday, March 10, Merle, a.k.a. Smelly Cat, a.k.a. The Most Patient Cat In the Universe left us. He developed what is called a "saddle thrombus"- A blood clot from his apparently failing heart lodged in his aorta where it branches to the back legs, cutting off circulation to his hindquarters. He became paralyzed and was in a lot of pain.

We tried giving him baby aspirin (to break up the clot) to no avail. But really it was his time to go. He came to live with my former Father in Law about 10 years ago and he was apparently very old THEN. He really didn't have much quality of life left.

He was deaf and one of his eyes was completely covered with thick cataract. He had gone from a very large cat to skin and bones slowly over the past couple of years, despite a decent appetite. There were several times that we thought we were going to lose him.

We are sad, but we know that he is now a young, healthy cat, and, most importantly, is in heaven with his best friend, my former FIL.

Rest in peace, Merle.

Smelly cat, smelly cat - why are they beating you?

This is our cat, Merle. Merle is a grumpy old bag of bones who decides to live in one random spot in the house, and stays there 95% of the time for a few months, and then picks a new spot. He's not a very active cat. The other day, he walked into the living room and sat down between the twins, and proceeded to pretend to completely ignore the thrashing he got from the now very interested toddlers. They grabbed handfuls of his skin, Wesley lifted his rear end by the tail, they yanked on his tail, They smacked him in the back, Evan attemped to pick him up and carry him off several times. They were really curious, and really rough. He's lucky they didn't pick him up above their heads and throw him against the ground while smiling and yelling "UHH!" like they do everything else.
Merle is the greatest cat ever. Not once did he hiss or take a swipe at one of them. Not once did he bare his teeth or bite one of them. He barely reacted at all, save the occasional grimace. We tried to get the babies to understand how to pet Merle, but they had already decided he was a new toy, and thus needed the new toy treatment (picking it up and throwing it down over and over.) It was obvious he came in to interact with them, and that he knew they were babies and didn't mean to hurt him.
Merle is great.