Mondo 's Memorial

Mondo
(2001 - 2014)

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General Details

Name: Mondo
Gender: Male
Type of Pet: Cat
Breed: Bangal
Age: 13 years old
Lived: Thursday, 1 March 2001 - Saturday, 9 August 2014

My Story

Most people were surprised when they'd first hear Mondo yowl. Could this really be a cat? Mondo was the loudest Bengal of them all, and that's saying something.

Unfortunately for him (but not for us), Mondo's voice was enough to make his first owner despair. She sold him to us at half price, after having him only for a Kardashian month. We speculated she wasn't allowed to have pets in her apartment, and there is no mistaking Mondo for anything but a lion.

So he came to us a bundle of anxiety. There was the anxiety of the new home, but also the fear of being hurt - possibly stemming from attempts to shush him. After all, he was deathly afraid of being held, of the door bell, and of all males, especially those with dark hair.

What do you know, like many kittens he disappeared for three days before we got to see him again. From then on, it was a love affair at second sight. Mondo's anxiety took a lot of patience to overcome, but a few years later he was as curious as any other cat, trying to escape out the front door to check out the Jehova's Witnesses (possibly the only one looking forward to their visits).

By Christmas, we had moved to a new house and found out that Mondo absolutely hated cars. He would complain from one end of the trip to the other. Also, we realized that the new jobs that came with the new house (or was it the other way around) required a whole lot more time. So we got him a "sister" as a Christmas present.

Shasta, another Bengal, was a third his size but had one strategic advantage: claws. You see, the first owner had decided to have him amputated (not sure why they call it "declawed") and while he thought he could eat the little intruder for lunch, he quickly learned she packed a punch beyond his abilities.

Mondo and Shasta settled into a love-hate relationship. You'd find them licking each other one moment, and two minutes later they'd be chasing each other around the house, hissing in that desperate anger that cats can get into for no reason a stupid human could ever discern.

A few years later, the two moved with me to San Francisco. Mondo got back into his anxieties in the new apartment, which meant he'd love meowing his 150 decibel calls at 2a in the morning. There were times when it almost got too much, I tell you!

We moved into a little house on the foggy side of town, where he managed to find a hole in the basement walls on Day 1. I came back from running errands only to find a proud Shasta surveying her new sole kingdom. I looked for him everywhere, inside, then outside. Just as I was about to despair, two tiny eyes full of hatred stared at me from the grassy wild patch next to the trash cans. He had been hiding there, unsure how to get back in, and absolutely disgusted by the cold, wet summer of the City.

Shasta and him then decided to move to Minnesota, with my ex. It was their first flight and they were very excited! (Not really). They quickly adapted to the new environment, happy to have a lot more people around. Still, they could be their usual pests, destroying furniture ("mmmmm, leather!") and continuing to call out at night.

In 2011 it was time for them to come back to me. I had moved to San Diego and was living in a tiny apartment. When I heard they were coming back, I got myself a huge townhouse, because the cats demanded a kingdom!

Their second flight must have been worse than the first one, because when I picked them up at the airport, they were both chirping nervously. To my surprise, when they saw me they immediately stopped: apparently, they remembered me and knew their fates were not sealed.

They loved the new place. San Diego's weather can't be beat, and we slowly found a new routine. I figured out that Mondo's night-time yowling was just a sort of radar call. He wanted to know I was around and ready to rescue him - from the monsters under the bed? So he would continue calling out at night, but I'd only have to trill back at him for him to shush.

At some point, they started both getting bored and I took them out for a jaunt in the alley. Mondo was absolutely thrilled about those and would beg, beg, beg to be let out. So every day, we'd march out and he'd explore the new place. After about two minutes, something would scare him, and he'd run right back to me and hop into my arm, only to bury his scared little face into my armpit.

Mondo was the sturdiest cat you can possibly imagine. Once, in the old house, we had replaced carpet in the hallway with tile. He used to chase down that way, and then turn 90 degrees to follow the turn of the hallway, grabbing the carpet with his clawless paws. After the carpet was gone, he tried the same trick, only to lack any gripping surface. He smalled into the bathroom door at high speed, making enough noise that the rest of the house came to see what happened. But he just walked away, shaking his head, his pride broken but nothing else.

His sturdiness may have been part of the reason I didn't notice his declining health. Looking back at the pictures I took, it was around February 2014 that he started getting sick. There was no outward change in behavior, but looking at his face you notice it seems strained, as if trying to contain a pain inside.

On July, 10th, he then had a crisis. Suddenly, he stopped eating and drink, and stayed on his favorite towel in a sunny corner all day. That was strange enough that I ran to the vet, who diagnosed extremely low body temperature, dehydration, and other worrisome signs.

The vet was great and Mondo came home patched up nicely. For a couple of weeks, he seemed to recover ever so slowly, but on August, 7th, he had a relapse. At first, it looked like one of those up and down swings he had taken all month, but by the morning of the 9th there was no denying that he was in really bad shape.

Again at the vet, tests revealed he suffered from cancer. His chest and abdomen were full of fluids that were making it hard for him to breathe, and for his heart to pump. His body temperature was down to 90F - ten degrees below where it should be.

There was nothing left to try, and Mondo went to sleep right in front of my eyes.

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Biography

Other Family Pets: Shasta
Country: USA
City: San Diego, CA
Traits: The Loudest Cat You'd Ever Meet!

Interests

Favourite Toy: Strings! Strings! Strings!
Favourite Place: Royal Hawaiian Hotel towel - Aloha!
Favourite Meal: Purina One - Sole Flavored
Favourite Game: Chasing fingers under the blanket
Favourite Trick: Trick? What's that?
Type of Affection: Coy at first, but a cuddle bug as soon as he figured he liked you
Other Interests:
Every day, Mondo would sniff at whoever was sitting in front of the TV. Then he'd jump next to them and sleep by them for hours on end.

Passing

Place of Passing: Turqoise Animal Hospital
Date of Passing: 9 August 2014
Cause of Passing: Cancer
Type of Funeral: Cremation
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699 Visits    |    Online Memorial Created By: mililani on 12 August 2014    |     Back to Top





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