A happy little story about a happy and lucky little cat from New York City.

This is not a big story, in fact it is a very little story, but a happy little story about Tyke a New York City cat.  Tyke has lived a good, long and happy life, and that is the joy of it;  from his first days Tyke´s life was in danger,  more than once since then, completely unbeknownst to himself, his demise was imminent.  But, he has survived and continues to enjoy his wonderful sweet little life. 

Tyke is a snooty bossy little fellah who thinks himself the king of the world.  Tyke has absolutely no time for other animals and any other living thing that may be defined as ´cute´, specifically babies and small children.   But everyone who meets Tyke falls absolutely in love with his utterly presumptuous snooty little self. 

Tyke was born somewhere around Maspeth in Queens, New York.  For all his regal snootiness, Tyke´s pedigree is somewhat lowly; his mother was a feral cat who must have been killed or died in some way as Tyke, with his eyes barely opened,  was found wandering quite forlornly near  the soon to be imploded  gas towers in Maspeth.  So Tyke´s first stroke of good fortune was someone visiting me at the time found him and brought him home.  He could not drink milk he was so emaciated and weak, so we fed him milk from an eye drop those first few days.  It was only years later the women in the pet store admitted to me that that day I had brought in Tyke for advice on care,  she cried when I left the store.  She said, she had n´t the heart to tell me that she did not believe Tyke would survive the weekend.  Clearly nobody had informed Tyke of this prognosis, because 15 years later he is still going strong!

Tyke´s first day in Citylights, nothing but eyes and ears and tail.

Tyke came to the Citylights building on the eve of the 4^th of July, 1998  the next day, there was fireworks and music and great celebrations on the streets, something  he clearly assumed was totally in order on this the auspicious occasion of his arrival to Long Island City.  And more, every year on the anniversary of his arrival, there are more fireworks and music and celebrations on the street, which is clearly, it seems to Tyke, totally befitting the occasion that´s in it.

Within days Tyke was more active.....

And this is Tyke a few months later.   Note his `throne`.  Most kings are happy with just one throne, but our Tyke had three ´thrones/flattened cardboard boxes´ situated at different locations in the apartment.

His royal snootiness settled in very quickly on the 26^th floor.  He loved sitting on the window ledge watching the world go by; birds, floating paper, and best of all snowflakes and raindrops.  Over time he took to sitting at the door of the apartment looking out at ´his subjects´ coming and going from their apartments.  

Interestingly he never tried to get on the elevator or go down the stairs, the 26^th floor was his world and he was quite happy to just rule over that.   The cat lovers amongst my neighbors very kindly invited Tyke home for him to review what he perceived to be his domain. One neighbor had a beagle mix, and when Tyke came to check out ´his´ domain there, her dog would go crazy for ages after Tyke left chasing Tyke´s scent.  The neighbor and I were both convinced that Tyke knew exactly what he was doing and that he enjoyed the boldness of it.  

  

Tyke was adored by Alexandra, who arrived on the 26^th floor as a new born baby.  Tyke did not at all have time for this little bundle of cute, for she was far too much competition for his top spot in the ´cute parade´.  Overtime Tyke came to tolerate this adoring little girl, and overtime she in turn adored him more and more.  Her parents who knew better were kind to put up with Tyke looking down his nose at their precious daughter.

There was nothing Tyke loved more than when there was a minor calamity in 26K, because it meant the maintenance men in the building had to come and fix it.  He LOVED watching the men work hard under the sink, or plastering the ceiling if there had been a leak from above.  These patient men put up with Tyke checking up on their work, and not always from the far end of the room.   Again Tyke assumed these activities were nothing more than entertainment laid on for his pleasure.

Our Tyke is a cultured little cat, he enjoys art...

And flowers....

 Visitors to the apartment were an adventure for Tyke; as far as he was concerned, they came for nothing else other than to pay him homage.  If they stayed overnight, he loved it the best; as they were sleeping on ´his´ sofa, he had no problem sleeping on them!  He was especially fond of one then rather corpulent Porto Rican gentleman, whose stomach made the perfect insulated cushion.    But it was another visitor, Yoshiko from Japan, who gave Tyke the name `King Tyke`.   Interestingly the Japanese do not have a tradition of house pets, but Yoshiko like the rest of us was swayed by Tyke´s regal snootiness.  

 After almost 10 happy years together with Tyke in Citylights, I planned to return to Europe.  Getting a good home for Tyke was my number one priority. (Note to those who might ask why not bring Tyke with me back to Europe:  a) the cost of bringing Tyke on a plane to Europe would in my mind have been far better served contributing to the care of other animals less fortunate.  b) The amount of sedatives needed to keep a small cat calm for eight hours, usually affected the cat in such a way that they never recover from such  a high dosage of chemicals in their little bodies.)   Tyke was not an easy sell ´´Good home wanted for cat who thinks he is king: not suited to families with other animals or children under 12.  Enjoys having the home to himself for a 2/3 few hours every day, but disapproves when owners are away for more than six hours on the trot.´´ …. The phone was not ringing off the hook.  In fact the phone did not ring at all!

Totally unaware that life in 26K was soon ending for Tyke and me, he  thought Cathy and Megan were just moving all the furniture for his entertainment.

I planned to vacate my apartment on February 1^st 2008, the deadline past.  Tenants for my apartment were found and had to be waved off as I still had not yet found a home for Tyke.  The  March 1^st deadline past.  And there was Tyke being his regal self, totally oblivious to the dire situation he was in.  With April 1^st fast  approaching as an action of last resort, I contacted all the vets in the area to see if they would euthanize Tyke.  Quite rightly they all refused; vets don´t put down healthy animals.   

March 27^th came and went, still no home for Tyke, I contacted the city to arrange for them to euthanize Tyke.  When I heard how it was done; all animals were brought to the pound in the a.m. and caged; throughout the day a trunk went from pound to pound collecting all the unloved/unwanted animals  until evening time when they were brought to a specific location to be euthanized.  This was no way to end the life of any animal, and certainly not for Tyke with his looking down his nose self,  who had brought so much joy to so many for almost 10 years.  

Wailing like a banshee I again called City Vets, the new veterinary surgery just opened on Vernon Blvd.  I pleaded with Jason Roggow the practice manager; I reminded him again how for almost six months I had looked for a home for Tyke with no success, would they put my cat down as I was going to have to have the city do it - and they knew how that went.  Well, for about 15 minutes I was on hold, I imagined there was a big vet conference going on in the back room about the ethics of putting down a healthy cat.  Jason came back and said ´all right we´ll take him`….. then I wailed some more, a lot more, it was final I thought, Tyke was going to be dead by the end of the day.  ´´No, no´´ Jason explained when I paused for a nano-second to take in some air for more wailing, ´´we will take Tyke to come live with us, we are a new surgery  and every veterinary practice needs a cat doesn´t it, and we will give Tyke a try.   We know he does n´t sound like a good candidate for a vet´s surgery, but Dr. Adams decided we will give him a shot, and if he doesn´t work out, well we know we tried.´´  So on March  27^th four days before I had to vacate the apartment, I found Tykpe a home!

Nobody but nobody who knew Tyke could imagine it could work out, never mind that it would work out so well.   At the ripe old age of 10, 70 in human years, Tyke started a new and completely different life; he adjusted exceedingly well to being king of a busy veterinary surgery. Tyke lords over the whole surgery; the staff adore his snooty little self;  the visitors with their sick animals are happily distracted by Tyke´s  regal acknowledgement of their visiting HIM.  And the animals…. Well Jason explained ´´it is for Tyke as if the animals do not exist.  He simply refuses to acknowledge the other animals´´…. And in a vets office a lot of animals come and go, especially when one considers there is a dog sitting service at the back of the surgery. 

And more, very quickly Tyke figured out that if he sat slightly to the right on the front desk, people coming to talk to the person on reception, would without thinking reach out and pet Tyke.  So all day long Tyke has a constant stream of people petting him.  And when he has enough of mere humans, he simply hides on an upper shelf, or sits in one of the two shop front windows and watches the world go by.  And just as he had no wish to go on the elevator in Citylights, Tyke has no desire to go out on the street when the doors are open, something there was a big concern about when Tyke first came to the surgery. 

The staff at City Vet just standing there oogling over Tyke.  And there he is just sitting there barely acknowledging they are there.  A typical scenario in the life of his royal snottiness!

A new aspect of Tyke´s character emerged in the veterinary surgery.  Normally as far as  he is concerned,  he is the center of the universe.  But Dr. Adams explained ´´we noticed as soon as a cat comes in that we have to put to sleep, Tykes instinctively understand and he starts to cry.´´   She went on ´´ after the cat has been put to sleep, Tyke will  sit on the surgery table and cry for two or three hours more.´´ Tyke does not cry for other animals that have to be euthanized, just cats.

 

And more Tyke found a buddy, not just another human to look down on, but a real live buddy - a gentleman who comes daily to work in the pet sitting room.  Tyke quite happily sits on the man´s lap for hours, and the gentleman graciously lets him.   It seems Monday morning  is now Tykes favorite time -  when his ´gentleman friend´comes back to the surgery after the weekend. 

 

This week I got an e-mail from Jason at City Vet, they were kind enough to let me know Tyke has a condition, inoperable, but he has no discomfort.   We don´t know if he will be able to enjoy the celebrations they put on for him the next 4^th of July,  but at 15 years, which is 105 years of age in human terms, that is ok. And with his great good luck and all that fabulous veterinary care Tyke is receiving, he may well last for several more birthday celebrations.  Which or whether, he has had a wonderful life, loved by so many people, and good luck with him at every turn.

And of course, why would n´t Tyke be sitting at the front desk of City Vet!

O.K. so a little grey around the whiskers... but at 15, or 105 in human terms... well, would n´t you like to look so well at that age!  Go TYKE!

So, if you chance to pass by City Vet on Vernon Blvd. at 46^th  Ave  in Long Island City, New York and you see Tyke sitting in the window… give him a little wave.  Who knows some of his great good fortune in life may well rub off on you!

Addendum 1:  In May 2013, a month after getting the e-mail from City Vet saying that Tyke had a condition that was inoperable, they contacted me again today to say that Tyke is doing very well, and they are beginning to think he will out live the whole lot of them!

Addendum 2:   In January 2014 I was in touch with City Vet again.  This time the news was not as good.  Our little buddy Tyke started to fail again at the end of 2013.   When he stopped eating it was decided to put him to sleep.  I cannot be sad; little Tyke  had a sweet little life, but a very happy little life.  Thank you little buddy, for all the fun you gave me and all who met you!