If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you know that I have a had a succession of office mates.  I have blogged about some of them  (Sinbad, Pepper and my current mate, Geoff), and would love to eventually introduce you to all of them.

I can’t promise I’ll find time to blog about all the others, but something came up has inspired me to  tell you about about my first office mate, Slide.

It’s hard to fathom now, but when I designed Tabby’s Place, I expected that the cats would only live in “designated areas.”  I can hear you laughing.  But I was young and naive.  Well, naive, anyway.

Slide was the first cat to break the “office barrier.”  He came in at age 16 with a horribly-swollen right eye.  The ophthalmologist diagnosed it as long-untreated glaucoma (an increase of pressure in the eye).  The eye would have to come out.

Slide took it like a trooper, but he looked so pathetic afterward.  Couple that with his apparent dislike of other cats and my fondness for him and I quickly ninstalled him as my first officemate.

Slide loved it in my office and became fiercely territorial.  Any cat that dared to cross the office threshold would be met by a ferocious-sounding  blur of fur.  It wasn’t long before the Lobby cats determined it was in heir best interests to do no more than glance into my office as they passed.

Given his age and condition, I assumed Slide would be with me for life.  But as fate would have it, a friend of mine was visiting and happened to make eye contact (pun intended) with Slide as she walked past my office.

We have remained in touch over the intervening years, and I worried about him as he became diabetic and then acquired the odd disease pododermatitis.  Despite this, Slide thrived.

In fact, the inspiration for this blog entry was my receipt of a nice new photo of “my boy,” as the ripe old age of 22. He is doing very well, thank you, despite some rotting teeth and worsening eyesight.

He looks great and I couldn’t be happier for him.