R.I.P. MacKenzie💕

Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I’ll miss you until we meet again.💕

Hi my name is Joe and I want to relate a story about our cat MacKenzie.

MacKenzie had come to us 11 months ago because he was a neighborhood cat that Marcia just felt a lot of empathy and pity for. He didn’t seem to have any home… he just was wandering the neighborhood.

MacKenzie just really had a big impact on Marcia and she just felt like she got a special emotional bond with MacKenzie… and said that MacKenzie did not have a good life…so she was going to give Mackenzie a good life and the first thing she was going to do was to give him a name. Marcia thought MacKenzie was a beautiful name for this cat…slowly Marcia just created a life for MacKenzie. MacKenzie was a street cat that walked around and didn’t have any permanent place…wandered in and out and we found out from our neighbor that he was once owned by one of their renters but the renter had to leave… and when the renter left…he had to leave MacKenzie. Marcia decided that she was going to adopt him and so she went over to our neighbor and said: “hey I’m gonna take care of this cat” and the neighbor was a little incredulous…and said: “wow… ok…if you want” MacKenzie had this insatiable appetite and would come to the back door and go WAAAAAAAA!!! because he was hungry all the time (do to an over-active thyroid took meds for) and so we were just constantly feeding him.

Marcia decided that she was going to create a little house which she hid underneath these bushes…that’s where she thought MacKenzie would sleep. It took a while for MacKenzie to really go into that house but eventually he did. He would sleep there…sleep on the back porch…on the front porch… and was always eating and coming to us…

and so slowly we adopted one another and he just became part of our little family with Darjeeling and Cami… He was there all the time and he stole our hearts. As we were anticipating our recent move we were concerned about how MacKenzie was going to do with the move and everything else but before all that happened…

one Sunday afternoon a gentleman who was visiting with our neighbors came over…and in a very curious way said: “I want to introduce myself…I am the guy that had MacKenzie and I feel extremely bad that I had to just leave him here” with teary eyes he said “oh thank you so much for taking care of MacKenzie… I actually got him as a kitten in Bend, Oregon and he has been with me all these years and he’s over 20 years old…he’s been to San Diego…Arizona…Washington state…travels really well…

I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you took him in and gave him a good life and I feel like I owe you money I feel so bad” I said not to worry about it…that MacKenzie is part of our family now…that we fully adopted him and explained that soon we would be moving to another home & would be taking MacKenzie. (he was so relieved and so happy) The following week we were in our new home and got MacKenzie all set up a in little bed…food and water…but we soon realized that he just didn’t seem to be content there… that he had started wandering. Recently our new next-door neighbor came over to me and said: “oh Joe MacKenzie got into my house and is now sleeping on my rocking chair” and of course we were embarrassed and apologized with an explanation of MacKenzie.

Just recently it became really concerning because we wouldn’t see MacKenzie for a period of time and we didn’t know where he was or where he was going. We’d have food out & usually he would make an appearance and then he would disappear. A few days ago I actually went out for a long run at 2 in the morning and there was MacKenzie… walking down the street.

This afternoon MacKenzie passed away quietly surrounded by his love ones and he’s going to be cremated…we’re going to revere his ashes. The beloved MacKenzie is gone… his memory will last forever with us and his ashes will be with us…and our lives have been enriched by his little life. We feel like we gave him a good life for the last 11 months…we really tried. MacKenzie we hope to see you one day and we love you…

Thank you for spending time with us.💕