Madison Deborah Emerson
Maddie came into our family in May of 2005 shortly after Patch's untimely death. Our house is set up for multiple cats, and having just two didn't seem like enough for all our cat furniture. Andy stopped by the Humane Society to see if there were any female Siamese kittens, and to his surprise, there was one!
Maddie settled in almost immediately and got along
with the other pets quickly. Lulu and Nisa hissed at her for a couple of days, but Rusty and Bruno seemed to think that it was okay that there was a little one in the house again. They needed a little extra attention for a few days, though; as you can see in the above, it was Rusty who needed to be in Hugh's lap the night Maddie came to live with us. We didn't know how 3-pound Maddie would react to 60-pound Rusty and Bruno; to our surprise, she rubbed up against their noses! This cat either knows no fear or knows no enemies.
Maddie's obituary (by Andy) July 26, 2021
In the past few weeks her health declined, even as she continued to enjoy her daily favorite treat, peanut butter. She fought hard to the very end. She completely stopped eating today and this evening just as we were getting into the car shortly before 6 pm to take to the vet say goodbye, she passed at that very moment. Rarely does a pet make these decisions easy so in a way a perfect ending to a life in a home where she was very loved for over 16 years.
When Maddie arrived we had dogs, Rusty and Bruno and kitties, Nisa and Lulu who all preceded her in death. In the pictures that follow, it is very evident she had an extremely close relationship with Nisa who left us in August 2019. Mason and Coltan, kitties adopted in 2008 also preceded her in death. She is survived by dogs, Miles and Abby, who both seemed to be almost grieving even before she passed today.
Maddie never purred for several years but eventually found her purr although she was never a heavy purrer. Her favorite treat was peanut butter. Whenever she would see me making a smoothie, she was standing nearby to lick the peanut butter spoon. She was pretty aggressive about making her wants known if she wanted something you were eating. Unfortunately, even a tiny bit of some foods she enjoyed would come back up. Fortunately, the peanut butter was never an issue.
She didn’t mind be cradled like a baby by me or Hugh and would go limp when held this way. Due to her relaxed nature when being held and around other pets we suspected in addition to Siamese she may have also had some Ragdoll. She also enjoyed being a lap kitty and often was found sitting between Hugh’s legs. He spent last night in the basement where she retreated for awhile yesterday with her either on him or beside him.
She loved kitty tease, foam balls and catnip. Even in the last year of her life she still loved to play either alone or with her humans. As recent as the past 3 weeks, she was still playing with toys.
She developed hyperthyroidism late in life and sort of tolerated being pilled. She didn’t like the small every other day of liquid cherry prednisone she had been on for over a year to heal and prevent a sore on her leg but it eventually allowed her to stop wearing a cone after several months in 2020 when it finally healed.
She enjoyed being the only kitty for the past year and was pretty active. She began to slow down in the last month or so but still kept eating (just not enough) and enjoying peanut butter. She put up a good fight for life but eventually her body just gave out. Below are a bunch of chronological photos of her content life. She will be very missed as her presence was always very evident.
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