Harrington
His Momma and Daddy always said: “Harrington is the sweetest little guy,” and he truly was. He came to us from Momma Margaret’s Persian cat rescue, and he was gorgeous. He had an incredible orange coat and beautiful, sweet orange eyes. Momma loved to brush his handsome orange hair. He was loving and affectionate and we felt so blessed to have him in our lives and in our home. While we didn’t know the exact date, we always celebrated his birthday in October, since he was the color of Fall, our favorite season. We estimated that he was 15 years old when he went to the Rainbow Bridge in May 2024, and he had lived with us for 13 wonderful years. He lived with two sisters: Miss Apple Blossom, our dear Bichon Frise, and Abby Rose, our dear Golden Poodle. We commissioned him as USAF astronaut Colonel Harrington, based on one of our favorite Twilight Zone episodes with Rod Taylor and his buddy COL Ed Harrington. We often called him the Colonel. Harrington was an inside cat, and we always felt that he truly appreciated having a loving home and pet parents who adored him. Although he didn’t go outside or travel much, he did go on a once-in-a-lifetime 10,000 mile road trip across the USA with his family during September and October of 2016. He was always a good little boy and rarely got into any “good trouble,” but on those occasions when his mischievous kitty cat personality came out, his Momma would call him “the rascal.” And his rascal side came out several harrowing times on the USA road trip. We had rented a large van with room for him and Blossom to move about as we drove hundreds of miles each day. Our fur babies enjoyed staying in pet-friendly La Quinta Inn hotels and several B&Bs. Early in the trip, Harrington “the rascal” decided to hide from us in the van when it was time to adjourn to a La Quinta hotel room at the end of a day’s travel. We tried and tried to get him to go into his pet carrier, and eventually gave up. But his Daddy was worried about him alone in the van at night, so Daddy went out to check on him and try once again to get him to join us in the room. And what did Daddy find: “the rascal” was sitting atop luggage in the van and was enjoying looking out the windows, like a Lion King surveying his dominion. He eventually let us take him into the hotel. There were several other “rascally” moments during the trip, but the most daunting occurred when we were about to leave a hotel in Utah. Daddy was going to hold Harrington and Blossom in his arms by the van and Momma was about to snap a photo with some of Utah’s majestic mountains in the background. But “the rascal” decided he wanted down, and his back claws dug into Daddy’s arms allowing him to escape and run across the hotel parking lot, with only a chain link fence between him and the mountainous wilderness. Momma and Daddy were terrified that he would run under the fence and into the wild, where he would no doubt have become dinner for a coyote. We managed to get him to run towards the hotel and away from the fence, but he decided to take a tour of several of the ground floor rooms that had open doors. Finally, we cornered him in a room and caught him, returning him to the safety of our embrace. Back at home, Harrington, like many cats, was quite nocturnal and he would like to roam around the house at night. His Daddy was also somewhat nocturnal, and Harrington and Daddy developed a close bond spending time together most ever night. Harrington particularly like it when Daddy would talk softly to him as he perched on the back of the living room sofa. Those beautiful orange eyes would look back knowingly at Daddy, like he understood every word, and he would purr and purr. He also liked to join Momma and Daddy and Blossom, and later Abby Rose, on our bed where he would cuddle with us under his “lambie blanket” and purr while getting gentle “rubbies.” We loved Harrington so very much and miss him every day. We know he is enjoying his time waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge along with our other fur babies Blossom, Alex (a gorgeous chocolate-point Himalayan cat) and Snoopy (a beautiful beagle). We will always cherish the memories of Harrington, Blossom, Alex and Snoopy, and we are so thankful that we got to share our lives with them.
Remembering and honoring you every day, in many different ways